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-A DISCOURSE 

q 

THE LIFE, SERVICES AND CHARACTER 

OP 

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER; 

DELIVERED BEFORE 

. THE ALBANY INSTITUTE, 
APKM. 15, 1839. 



WITH 

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 

OF THE COLONY AND MANO 

OF 
IN 

AN APPENDIX. 



R 



By DANIEL D. BARNARD 



/ 

ALBANY: 
PRINTED BY HOFFBIAN & WHITE. 

1839. 






/v.'"' 



y 






[Entered according to -Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-nine, by Hoffman & White, in the Clerk's Office of the 
Northern District Court of New- York.] 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Hon. Daniel D. Barnard. 
Dear Sir, 

At a meeting of the Albany Institute, held April 15, 1839, it was 
unanimously Resolved, that the thanks of the Institute be presented to the 
Hon. Daniel D. Barnard, for his able and interesting Discourse on the Life 
and Services of Stephen Van Rensselaer, and that he be requested to furnish 
a copy of the same for publication. 

As Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, I have been instructed 
to make this communication. 

I remain, with sentiments of high respect and esteem, 
Yours truly, 

T. ROMEYN BECK. 
April 16, 1839. 



Albany, April 17, 1839. 

Dear Sir, 

My Discourse on the Life and Services of our late President, Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, having been prepared and delivered at the request of the Insti- 
tute, the Manuscript will be placed at the disposal of that Body. 

With great respect and regard, 
I am, dear sir. 

Faithfully yours, 

D. D. BARNARD. 
Dr. T. RoMEYN Beck. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



Those who did the Author the honor to attend the delivery of 
this Discourse, will find in it some passages and paragraphs which 
were then omitted for the sake of brevity. 

The Historical Sketch contained in the Appendix, was read be- 
fore the Institute at one of its regular meetings ; and has been, 
thought of sufficient public interest, to be worth preserving. It 
was prepared chiefly from a personal examination of the Manu- 
script Records in the Office of the Secretary of State at Albany. 
It is presented, by request, in connection with the Discourse de- 
livered before the Institute, as belonging not inappropriately to the 
subject and the occasion; indeed, it will be seen that it formed 
originally a part of the Discourse itself, from which it was neces- 
sarily severed on account of its length — its place being supplied in 
the body of that paper by a brief reference to some of the leading 
facts contained in the Sketch. 



DISCOURSE. 



The Albany Institute, embracing in its objects 
a wide field for observation and study, is made up 
of three principal Departments, each having its 
President, Vice-President, and other appropriate 
Officers. It was formed originally by the union 
of two Societies previously existing under sepa- 
rate charters. At the organization of the Insti- 
tute, on the 5th of May, 1824, Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, then at "Washington as the Repre- 
sentative in Congress from this District, was 
unanimously selected to preside over its delibera- 
tions. He filled, at the time, the Presidency of 
the Albany Lyceum of Natural History, hence- 
forth to be merged in the Institute j and there 
was every thing in his position and standing, as 
well as in his direct connection in many ways 
with the objects of the new Society, to make the 



8 

compliment of the selection deserved and proper ; 
yet it was found that his own regards, with cha- 
racteristic modesty, had been directed towards 
another worthy and eminent citizen, as fittest to 
occupy the Chair 5 and it was only after much 
hesitation and reluctance that he communicated 
to a friend on the spot, his permission and request 
to decide the question of acceptance or refusal 
for him. It hardly need be added that the office 
was promptly accepted in his behalf. By the 
Charter of the Institute, this office is made elec- 
tive annually j and every year, since the same 
agreeable act was first performed, and with the 
same unanimity, have the Members of this So- 
ciety oflfered the same grateful testimonial of 
their respect and affection for their beloved Presi- 
dent. Alas ! my Friends and Fellow-Members, 
that offering of ours has been made for the last 
time. We are now called, in common with the 
whole country, to mourn his loss. He departed 
this life on Saturday, the twenty-sixth day 
OF January last. It was at four o'clock in the 
afternoon, of a day which had dawned upon him 
with as fair a promise of closing on him in life, 
as any, perhaps, which he had seen for the last 



two years, that in a small Cabinet of his ample 
mansion, which his infirmities had made his chief 
asylum and sanctuary for many months, sitting in 
his chair, with just warning enough to convey 
the intimation to his own mind that his hour had 
come, without enough of previous change serious- 
ly to alarm the fears of anxious, watchful and 
trembling hearts around him, the venerable man 
bowed his head, and died. 

In the affecting ceremonies of his funeral, the 
Members of the Institute had their humble part. 
It had been resolved, in special session, that they 
would attend the funeral of their President in a 
body. This, however, was not all their duty. It 
was thought to belong appropriately to them to 
gather up the memorials of his life and services, 
and cause them to be arranged and presented be- 
fore the Society in a regular Discourse. It has 
pleased those whose charge it was to make the 
selection, to assign the duty of preparing and pre- 
senting this tribute, to me. They might have 
found many to perform the service more accepta- 
bly j not one, since the time had come when the 
duty must be discharged by some body, to whom 
it could have been a more grateful office. 



10 

In entering on the execution of this trust, I 
should have been glad, if time had permitted, to 
have claimed the indulgence of my audience, 
first of all, to carry them back to a period in his- 
tory somewhat remote from the times to which 
the distinguished subject of this Memoir more im- 
mediately belonged. Some of the acts of his in- 
dividual career, and the traits of his beautiful 
character, when we should reach them in the 
progress of our narrative, would, I think, have 
developed themselves much the more strongly 
for the light which might thus have been thrown 
on them from the past. They would have been 
found, some of them at least, to have been linked 
backward, by unbroken chains, to the times and 
events of other and even distant generations. 
Men's virtues, any more than their vices, are not 
all their own. To some extent they are inheritors 
of virtues, and to some extent they are moulded 
by circumstances. They may be trained in schools 
of which the masters are dead long and long be- 
fore, and of which nothing remains but the trans- 
mitted lessons that were taught without intending 
to teach them. In his personal history, Mr. Van 
Rensselaer was subjected to the strong influence 



11 

of great events — events powerfully affecting pro- 
perty, and rights, and ideas, and character. He 
vv^as born the subject of a King, and he was born 
to a Chartered Inheritance, which gave him the 
right to a considerable share of Feudal honors 
and Feudal power 5 at twenty-one, however, he 
had become, through a forcible and bloody Revo- 
lution, a citizen of a free Republic, with only his 
own share, as such, with all his fellow-citizens, in 
the popular sovereignty of the country. He was 
the proprietary of a remarkable landed interest — 
remarkable for any country — connecting him 
and his affairs directly with an ancestry, and 
through that ancestry with a people, in a portion 
. of whose doings and history are bound up some in- 
teresting and valuable materials for the proper 
illustration of events and characters in later and 
even present times, in this part of our country. 
As such proprietary, looking to the earlier periods 
of his life, he represented, in his own person, a 
state of things in regard to property and its inci- 
dents, and the structure of social and political in- 
stitutions, which in his own time and in his own 
hands, passed away forever — not, however, with- 
out leaving behind them their strongly-marked 



12 

and indelible traces 5 and, looking at him from 
the days of his manhood onward, he was, in his 
character and in his relations, a living witness 
and illustration of some important contributions 
which a former age had made to the present, and 
by which the features of the latter, as stamped 
by a new order of things, were not a little modi- 
fied. Undoubtedly we change with the times 5 
yet no age can choose but w ear, more or less 
strongly, the lineaments of its parent age — the 
complexion, even a very great way off, will shew 
a tinge from the blood that was in the original 
fountain. He, the subject of our present reflec- 
tions, stood, in one sense, between the present and 
the past J between two distinct and even opposite 
orders of things, and he belonged in a manner to 
both. His life reached forward well into the 
heart of the Republican system — and the whole 
country did not contain a more thorough Repub- 
lican than he was — while his days ran back to a 
period when a feudal Aristocracy, of which he 
was himself a part, had a legalized and legitimate 
growth in the soil of this our native land. He 
was a thorough Republican, in a Republican 
State, and yet he bore to his death, by common 



13 

courtesy and consent — never claimed but always 
conceded — the hereditary title which had ancient- 
ly attached to the inheritance to which he had 
been born. 

The title, as is well known to you, by which 
he was usually addressed and spoken of amongst 
us, was that of Patroon. This title was derived, 
evidently, from the Civil Law, and the Institu- 
tions of Rome. In the time of the Roman Re- 
public, the Latin Patronus was used to denote a 
Patrician, who had certain of the people under 
his immediate protection, and for whose interests 
he provided by his authority and influence. At a 
later period, and after the power of Rome had 
been greatly extended by her conquests, individu- 
als and families of the noble order, became Pa- 
trons of whole Cities and Provinces, and this 
protective authority, with large and extensive 
legal and political rights and powers, in some in 
stances descended by inheritance. The family 
of the Claudii was vested with this patronage 
over the Lacedemonians 5 and that of the Mar- 
cel li over the Syracusans. It was partly from 
this source, it may well be supposed, that the 
Dutch, who had adopted the Civil Law, derived 



14 

the idea of governing a remote territory, not 
easily to be reached by the Central Authorities, 
by committing it to the ample Jurisdiction of a 
Patroon.* This title was not applied in Holland, 
so far as I know, to any order in the State there, 
nor was it employed in, or by, any other of the 
Countries of Europe. It was not a title of per- 
sonal nobility, as that term is understood in 
Europe since the time when Monarchs assumed 
the right of conferring these distinctions by crea- 
tion or patent. It belonged exclusively to the 
Proprietors of large Estates in lands, occupied by 
a Tenantry 5 and like the title of Seignior, which 
the French bestowed with the Seigniories, or large 
territorial estates and jurisdictions in Lower 
Canada, on the first colonization of that country, 
it was deemed especially proper for Transatlan- 
tic use. Yet it had attached to it, in connection 
with proprietorship, the usual incidents and privi- 
leges of the old feudal Lordships, in direct imita- 
tion of which, both title and estate, with their ju- 

* I have seen the "Jus Patronaius" of the Roman Law expressly re- 
ferred to, in an Official MS. of the Dutch Authorities themselves, as the 
foundation of the powers and jurisdiction committed to the Patroons of New 
Netherlands. 



15 

risdictions, were instituted. It may be added as 
worth remarking, that, in the case before us, this 
title has ruA on, and been regularly transmitted, 
with the blood of the first Patroon, down to our 
day, though it is now a Century and three Quar- 
ters since the Inheritance ceased to be a Dutch 
Colony, to which alone the title properly attach- 
ed, and became, by Royal authority, after a 
foreign conquest, an English Manorial possession 5 
and though, in later time, a Revolution has inter- 
vened by which the Estate was fully shorn of its 
Manorial character and attributes, leaving to the 
proprietor, now for the last fifty years, to hold his 
property merely by the same simple tenure . and 
ownership, with which every freeholder in the 
country is invested. 

Mr. Van Rensselaer was the fifth only in the 
direct line of descent from the original proprie 
tor and Patroon of the Colony of Rensselaer- 
wyck. This personage, the founder of the Colo- 
ny, was a man of substance and character. He 
was a merchant of Amsterdam, in Holland, 
w'ealthy, and of high consideration in his class, at 
a time when the Merchants of Holland had be- 
come, in effect, like those of Italy, the princes of 



16 

the land. He was that KiUian Van Rensselaer 
referred to in our recent Histories as having had 
a principal share in the first attempts made by 
the Dutch towards colonization in America. 

I think this occasion would have been held to 
justify a more particular reference to the part 
which this Ancestor of the late Mr. Van Rens- 
selaer had in American Colonization, and espe- 
cially at the important point where we are now 
assembled ; and that it would not have been out 
of pl^ccj to have introduced the personal memoirs 
of the latter, by a portion at least of that curious 
and hitherto neglected history which attaches to 
the Colony and Manor of Rensselarwyck — that 
identical landed estate and inheritance, which, 
nearly in its original integrity, though stript of 
its accessories, we have seen held and enjoyed, in 
our time, by a lineal descendant of the first Pro- 
prietor. But the unavoidable length to which the 
briefest outline of that History runs — though 
fully prepared, after the labor of considerable re- 
search — has compelled me, reluctantly I confess, 
to lay it entirely aside. I must needs content 
myself now with some very general facts and ob- 
servations in this connection. 



17 

Killian Van Rensselaer — to whom I just now 
referred — was a large proprietor, and a Director 
in the Amsterdam Branch of the Dutch West 
India Company. This Company was incorpora- 
ted in 1621, and was composed of an associate 
band of merchant-warriors and chiefs, with a 
chartered domain and jurisdiction as well for con- 
quests, as for trade and colonization, extending in 
Africa from Cancer to the Cape, and in America 
from the extreme South to the frozen regions of the 
North, and with the right to visit and to fight in 
every sea where their own or a national enemy 
could be found. Ample powers of government 
also attended them every where. After they had 
obtained a footing in this country, a College of 
Nine Commissioners was instituted to take the 
superior direction and charge of the affairs of 
New Netherland. Killian Van Rensselaer was 
a member of this College. This was in 1629. 
The same year, a liberal Charter of Privileges to 
Patroons and others was obtained from the Com- 
pany. Colonization by the Dutch had its origin 
and foundation in this extraordinary Instrument. 
The same Instrument provided also for founding 
a landed and Baronial Aristocracy for the Pro- 



18 



vinces of the Dutch in the New World. Early 
in the next year, with the design of establishing 
his Colony under the Charter, Van Rensselaer 
sent out an Agency, when his first purchase of 
land was made of the Indian Owners, and sanc- 
tioned by the Authorities of the Company at 
New Amsterdam. Other purchases were made 
for him in subsequent years, until 1637, when, his 
full complement of territory having been made 
up— nearly identical with the Manor of our day, 
and forming, as subsequently defined, a tract of 
about twenty-four miles in breadth by forty-eight 
in length— Killian Van Rensselaer himself came 
to take charge of his Colony. Many of his colo- 
nists were already here, and others were sent out 
to him— all at his own cost. The full comple- 
ment for his Colony, required by the Charter, 
was one hundred and fifty adult souls, to be plant- 
ed within four years from the completion of his 
purchases. 

The power of the Patroon of that day was 
analagous to that of the old feudal Barons j 
acknowledging the Government at New- Amster- 
dam, and the States General, as his Superiors. 
He maintained a high military and judicial au- 



19 

thority within his territorial limits. He had his 
own fortresses, planted with his own cannon, man- 
ned with his own soldiers, with his own flag 
waving over them. The Courts of the Colony- 
were his own Courts, where the gravest questions 
and the highest crimes were cognizable ; but 
with appeals in the more important cases. Jus- 
tice was administered in his own name. The 
Colonists were his immediate subjects, and took 
the oath of fealty and allegiance to him. 

The position of the Colony was one of extreme 
delicacy and danger. It was situated in the 
midst of warlike and conquering Tribes of Sav- 
ages, which, once angered and aroused, were 
likely to give the Proprietors as much to do in 
the way of defence, and in the conduct of hostile 
forays, as were used to fall to the lot of those 
bold Barons of the Middle Ages, whose castles 
and domains were perpetually surrounded and be- 
seiged by their hereditary and plundering enemies. 
Happily, however, the Patroons of the period, 
and their Directors, or Governors of the Colony, 
by a strict observance of the laws of justice, and 
by maintaining a cautious and guarded conduct 
in all things towards their immediate neighbors, 



20 

escaped — but not without occasions of great ex- 
citement and alarm — those desolating wars and 
conflicts which w ere so common elsewhere among 
the infant Colonies of the country. 

While, however, they maintained, for the most 
part, peaceable relations with the Indian Tribes 
around them, they were almost constantly in col- 
lision, on one subject or another, with the autho- 
rities at New Amsterdam, and those in Holland. 
The boundaries of rights and privileges between 
them and their feudal Superiors were illy defined, 
and subjects of disagreement and dispute were 
perpetually arising. Here, at this point, was the 
chief mart of trade, at the time, in the Province 5 
and this trade fell naturally into the hands of the 
Proprietors of the Colony. Not a little heart- 
burning and jealousy, on the part of the Com- 
pany, was excited on this account, especially when 
the Director of the Colony was found to have set 
up his claim to " staple-right," amounting to a 
demand of sovereign control over the proper 
trade of the Colony against all the world, the 
Company alone excepted, and had made formida- 
ble preparations to enforce his right by the estab- 
lishment of an Island Fortress, planted with can- 



21 

non, and frowning over the channel and highway 
of the river. The Uttle village of Beverwyck 
too, clustering under the guns of Fort Orange — 
the germ of the City of Albany — became deba- 
table ground. The soil belonged to the Colony, 
and was occupied with the proper colonists and 
subjects of the Patroon. The Company thought 
fit to assert a claim to as much ground as would 
be covered by the sweep of their guns at the 
Fort. This was of course resisted on one side, 
and attempted to be enforced on the other ; and 
so sharp did this controversy become, and so im- 
portant was it deemed, that Gov. Stuyvesant, on 
one occasion, sent up from Fort Amsterdam, an 
armed expedition, to invade the disputed territory, 
and aid the military force at Fort Orange in sup- 
porting the pretensions of the Company — an ex- 
pedition wholly unsuccessful at the time, and hap- 
pily too as bloodless as it was bootless. But I 
can not pursue this singular history in this place. 
In 1664, the English Conquest of the Province 
took place. The Colony of Rensselaerwyck fell 
with it. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, the second 
son of Killian, was then in possession. He died 
in possession in 1674. The line of the eldest son 



22 

of Killian, the original proprietor, became ex- 
tinct 5 and in 1704, a Charter from Queen Anne 
confirmed the estate to Killian, the eldest son of 
Jeremias Van Rensselaer. The subject of our 
present Memoir was the third only in the direct 
line of descent, in the order of primogeniture, 
through the second son of this Killian Van Rens- 
selaer — the eldest son having died without issue. 
The Estate came to him by inheritance, accord- 
ing to the canons of descent established by the 
law of England. It never passed, at any time, 
from one proprietor to another by will, nor was it 
ever entailed. 

By a Royal Charter of 1685, the Dutch Colo- 
ny of Rensselaer wyck had been converted and 
created into a regular Lordship, or Manor, with 
all the privileges and incidents belonging to 
an English estate and Jurisdiction of the Mano- 
rial kind. To the Lord of the Manor was ex- 
pressly given authority to administer justice 
within his domain in both kinds, in his own 
Court-leet and Court-baron, to be held by 
himself or by his appointed Steward. Other 
larcre privileges were conferred on him 5 and 
he had the right, with the freeholders and in- 



23 

habitants of the Manor, to a separate representa- 
tion in the Colonial Assembly. All these rights 
continued unimpaired down to the Revolution. 

For eighty-four years immediately preceding 
the Revolution, the Manor was never without its 
Representative in the Assembly of the Province — 
always either the Proprietor himself, or some 
member, or near relative, or friend of the family. 
Nearly the whole of this entire period was filled 
up with a series of hot political controversies be- 
tween the Assemblies and the Royal Governors. 
I have looked into the records of these contests, 
and I have not found an instance from the earliest 
time, in which the Proprietor or Representative 
of the Manor was not found on the side of popu- 
lar liberty. The last of the Representatives was 
that stern patriot and Whig, Gen. Abraham Ten 
Broeck. He was the uncle of the late Mr. Van 
Rensselaer, the last of the Manorial Propri- 
etors, and his Guardian in his non-age, and had a 
right, therefore, to speak and act in the name of 
his Ward. His official efforts, though often in a 
minority in the Assembly, were untiring to bring 
the Province of New- York into a hearty co-ope- 
ration with her sister Colonies in their movements 
towards Revolution. 



24 

This brief reference to the connection of the 
Manor, and of the family whose possession and 
estate it was, with the pohtical history of the pe- 
riod, preceding the Revolution 5 may serve not 
only to do justice to the parties concerned, and 
thence incidentally to vindicate, if there were 
need of it, the conduct of the Dutch inhabitants 
of this Province with reference to the progress of 
free principles — but also to shew that great as the 
change certainly was in the personal fortunes and 
prospects of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer, 
between his birth and his majority, yet, in 
truth, that change was neither sudden nor vio- 
lent ; that it was altogether easy and natural 5 
that the way had already been prepared 5 and 
that, though born as he was to hereditary honors 
and aristocratic rank, he yet, while still a youth, 
was carried, by the strong current of the times, 
over the boundary — to him, at the period, but little 
more than an imaginary line — between two very 
opposite political systems *, and found himself, at 
his prime of manhood, and when called to take his 
own part in the active scenes of life, not only a 
contented, but a glad and rejoicing subject and 
citizen of a free Republic. With the history of 



25 

the past before him 5 in possession of an estate 
which connected him nearly with feudal times 
and a feudal ancestry, and which constituted him- 
self, in his boyhood, a Baronial Proprietor, instead 
of what he now was — the mere fee-simple owner 
of acres, with just such political rights and privi- 
leges as belonged to his own freehold tenantry, 
and no other — it would not, perhaps, have been 
very strange, if he had, sometimes, turned his re- 
gards backwards, to contemplate the fancied 
charms of a life, sweetened with the use of in- 
herited power, and gilded with Baronial honors. 
Nothing, however, I feel warranted in saying, 
was ever farther from his contemplations. He 
had no regrets for the past. He was satisfied 
with his own position ; and though the Revolu- 
tion, in giving his country independence had stript 
him of power and personal advantages, yet as it 
had raised a whole nation of men to the condition 
and dignity of freemen, and so to a political equal- 
ity with himself, it was an event which, to a mind 
attuned as his always was to a liberal and en- 
lightened philanthropy, was only to be thought 
of with the strongest approbation and pleasure. 
But I come now to recount — which I propose 

D 



26 

to do in the plainest and simplest manner, as best 
according with the modesty of his own preten- 
sions and character — those events in the lif of 
Mr. Van Rensselaer which constitute his per- 
sonal history. 

He was born on the first day of November, 
1764, in the city of New York. His father was 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, the Proprietor of Rens- 
selaerwyck. His mother was Catharine, daughter 
of Philip Livingston, Esquire, of the family of 
that name to which belonged the Manor of Liv- 
ingston. Mr. Livingston was conspicuous among 
those lofty and disinterested spirits brought out 
by the American llevolution in devotion to human 
liberty. He was one of the Signers of that un- 
dying instrument — the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. At the period of the birth of his grand- 
child, which took place in his own house, he was 
a member of the General Assembly, and at that 
time, more than ten years in advance of the Revo- 
lution, in an Answer to the Speech of Lt. Gov. 
Colden, which was reported by him, he put forth 
and insisted, in explicit terms, on that great doc- 
trine of " taxation only with consent," the denial 



27 

of which by Great Britain finally brought on the 
conflict of arms. 

The present Manor House of Rensselaerwyck 
was completed in 1765, when the subject of our 
Memoir was a year old. It took the place of a 
structure, the site of which was near by, and 
which had answered, in its day, the uses of a 
fortress, as well as a dwelling. To this, the new 
Manor House, his father directly resorted. His 
occupation of it, however, was short. He died in 
1769, of a pulmonary disease, leaving his son, his 
eldest born, a few days less than five years old, 
and transmitting to him a constitutional weakness 
of the chest, which shewed itself in very alarm- 
ing symptoms in his minority, but happily after- 
wards disappeared. His father left two other 
children, a son and daughter. The latter still 
survives. 

On the death of his father, the care of that 
great landed and feudal estate, which fell exclu- 
sively to him, by the rule of primogeniture, was 
committed to his uncle. Gen. Ten Broeck, by 
whom it was faithfully managed — as far as the 
disturbed state of the times would allow — during 
the minority of his Ward. For a while he re- 



28 

mained under the control and supervision of his 
excellent and pious mother — long enough no 
doubt to receive those deep impressions of the 
value of religious faith and the beauty of holy 
things, which were finally wrought firmly into 
the texture of his character. 

His first experience in school was under the 
labors of Mr. John Waters, a professional School- 
master, at a period when a Schoolmaster was 
what he always should be, a man of consideration. 
It was before the days of Webster and printed 
Spelling-books, and when the letters and elements 
were studied and taught from a horn-book. And 
thus was he initiated into these mysteries. The 
school-house, with its sharp roof and gable to the 
front, still holds its ground in North Market-street, 
nearly opposite the stuccoed church of the Colo- 
nic, in this city. And the blood of John Waters — 
the professional Schoolmaster — is still with us, 
and running in the veins of some of our most 
worthy and respectable citizens. 

But the education of the young Proprietor was 
to be provided for in a way which required his 
early removal from the side and hearth of his 
mother. This care devolved on his grand-father 5 



39 

and he was first placed by Mr. Livingston at a 
school in Elizabeth Town, in New Jersey. When 
the stirring and troublous times of the Revolu- 
tion came on, Mr. Livingston was driven with his 
family from the city of New York, and took 
refuge at Kingston. Here, fortunately, was es- 
tablished a Classical School, or Academy, which 
attained no small celebrity under the direction of 
Mr. John Addison. Addison was a Scotchman, 
possessing the thorough scholarship of an edu- 
cated man of his nation, and without any lack of 
the shrewdness and strong sense so apt to be 
found among his countrymen. He became a man 
of consideration in the State, and filled the office 
of State Senator about the beginning of the pre- 
sent century. Mr. Livingston, much absent from 
home himself on public affairs, caused his young 
charge to be domesticated in his own family, for 
the convenience of his attendance on the instruc- 
tion of Addison. He acquired the elements of a 
classical education at the Kingston Academy. 
The late venerable Abraham Van Vechten — one 
of the noblest specimens of humanity which it has 
pleased God ever to create — was his fellow-stu- 
dent at this school ; and here was formed between 



30 

the two a close and confidential intimacy and 
friendship which death alone was able to in- 
terrupt. 

But the time soon came when it was necessary 
to supply the growing student with more ample 
advantages. The celebrated Dr. Witherspoon — 
scholar, divine, patriot, and statesman — had ar- 
rived in this country a few years before the Revo- 
lution, and, taking charge of the College of New 
Jersey at Princeton as President, had raised the 
reputation of that Institution to a very high pitch. 
The Revolution dispersed the students and broke 
up the College, and the learned and ardent With- 
erspoon, driven from Academic shades, plunged 
into the business of the War. He, too, was a 
Signer of the Declaration. He was still in Con- 
gress in 1779 j but he had determined to retire at 
the close of that year, and resuscitate his beloved 
College. In the summer of that year Congress 
instituted a Commission, the members of which 
were to proceed northward to investigate, on the 
spot, the troubles to which the country was then 
subjected by the inhabitants of the New Hamp- 
shire Grants. The Doctor was in the North on 
this Commission, and on his return, took, by ar- 



31 

rangement, young Van Rensselaer with him, to 
make one of the few who should be gathered, in 
the autumn, under the wing of the re-animated 
College. Gen. Washington's Head Quarter's 
were then in the Highlands, at New Windsor. 
Stony Point had just fallen into the hands of the 
enemy, who had also a footing in New Jersey. 
The worthy Commissioner and his charge, re- 
ceived from the General the protection which the 
times required. Our student passed on his way 
to his first essay in College life, under a military 
escort. He was placed in the family of the Rev. 
Dr. Samuel Smith, the son-in-law of Dr. Wither- 
spoon, and Vice-President of the College, to 
whom the immediate care of conducting the in- 
struction of the Institution was now committed. 
But New Jersey was not yet safe from the incur- 
sions of the enemy 5 Princeton was still too near 
the seat of war 5 and the next year it was thought 
advisable to remove the young Collegian to the 
University at Cambridge, then, as now, a distin- 
guished and leading school of the higher kind in 
the United States. Here, in 1782, in the nine- 
teenth year of his age, with respectable attain- 
ments in the classical and other learning of the 



32 

time, he took his first degree in letters as a Bach- 
elor of Arts. It may be added, in this connec- 
tion, that in 1825, he received from Yale College, 
a Diploma conferring upon him the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Laws. 

The war of the Revolution was ended in 1782, 
though peace was not proclaimed till the next 
year. Mr. Van Rensselaer was now at home, 
still two years under age, too late escaped from 
the University to put on armor for his country, 
w ithout any motive to apply himself to the acqui- 
sition of professional learning of any sort, his es- 
tate yet under guardianship and properly cared 
for 5 and what was he to do ? The natural refuge 
of a young man thus situated, and no doubt as 
safe as any which he would be likely to take, w as 
in matrimony. He was married, before he was 
twenty, at Saratoga, to Margaret, the third 
daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler ; and thus was 
he connected, by a near relationship, and one as 
it proved, of great confidence and affection, with 
another of those extraordinary men whose names 
so crowd and illumine the pages of our Revolu- 
tionary history. 

His excellent mother, a discreet and exemplary 



33 

christian, had, in 1775, united herself in mar- 
riage with the Rev. Dr. Eilardus Westerlo, an 
original Dutchman, a fine scholar, an eminent 
divine, and, at the time, and long before and long 
after, the installed pastor of the Dutch Church in 
this city, vs^here he preached in the Dutch lan- 
guage for the first fifteen or twenty years of his 
ministry. The mother of Mr. Van Rensselaer 
still resided with her husband at the Manor 
House, at the time of his marriage 5 but the 
ample Parsonage of the good Domine, in North 
Market street, was then unoccupied, and there he 
bestowed his bride, to await the period when, hav- 
ing attained his legal majority, he should take 
possession of his inheritance. When that time 
came, the proper exchange of domiciles took place 
between him and his mother. 

The occasion of his reaching the important 
age of twenty-one was celebrated with much of 
that kind of rousing observance, which, without 
being inappropriate, would have fitted more per- 
fectly, perhaps, his relations as a Landlord, if the 
event had transpired ten years earlier. But as it 
was, and changed as the political relations be- 
tween him and his tenants had become within that 



34 

time, they were not to be restrained from offer- 
ing, on this event, the testimony of their joy, and 
their affection for his person, as if he was still, 
instead of being simply a contracting party with 
them in regard to their lands, as much their Pa- 
troon and feudal Superior, as his ancestor was of 
their fathers in the time of Petrus Stuyvesandt. 
The Tenantry were certainly not as numerous, 
by any means, as they have since become j but 
such as they were, they poured in upon him from 
the extremes of the broad territory, nor did they 
leave him till they had done ample justice to the 
liberal cheer which he had provided for their en- 
tertainment. 

This event fairly disposed of, Mr. Van Rens- 
selaer found it necessary to look somewhat criti- 
cally after his interests in the Manor. He was 
in possession of a very large landed interest, but 
one which could not be managed without great 
expense, and from which he found the returns not 
only moderate, but small. The interests of the 
country too, as well as his own, required that 
these lands should be cultivated. Comparatively 
few of them had yet been converted into farms. 
The Revolution had just closed, and left the 



35 

country poor. Speculators would buy lands^— 
as they always will — but farmers, the laborious 
tillers of the soil, were unable, or unwilling, to con- 
tract for the fee. By offering Leases in fee, or 
for long terms, at a very moderate rent — some- 
times hardly more than nominal — Mr. Van 
Rensselaer succeeded readily, in bringing a 
large proportion of his lands, comprising the 
greater part of the present counties of Albany 
and Rensselaer, into cultivation 5 and thus secu- 
ring to himself a valuable and competent in- 
come. This policy once adopted by him, was 
never changed. Nor did he ever after attempt, 
as he might easily have done, greatly to increase 
his current means derived from this source. 
The net returns from his lands, never exceed- 
ed, probably, two, if they did one, per cent upon 
them, considered as a capital at a very moderate 
valuation. But finding himself in the receipt of 
a current income, large enough for his simple 
and unostentatious habits, and those of his family, 
with something liberal to spare for his charities, 
he was not only not desirous of adding to his 
wealth by enhancing his receipts, but he was 
positively and strenuously averse to such a course. 



36 

He had none of that morbid appetite for wealth 
which grows ravenous by what it feeds on. And 
this it was, I have no doubt — the strong disinch- 
nation to cumber himself with useless accumula- 
tions — which led him to neglect improvements, 
suggested often by the interest of others, and on 
account of which, because he could not bring 
himself to feel and indulge that passion for profit 
and gain which consumed those around him, he 
was sometimes subjected to heavy censures. 

Mr. Van Rensselaer received his first mili- 
tary Commission, as a Major of Infantry, in 
17865 then at the age of twenty-two 5 and he 
was promoted to the Command of a Regiment 
two years afterwards. In 1801, Gov. Jay direct- 
ed the Cavalry of the State to be formed into a 
separate Corps, divided from the Infantry to which 
the Horse had before been attached. The Caval- 
ry formed a single Division, with two Brigades, 
and the command of the whole was conferred on 
Mr. Van Rensselaer. This Commission of 
Major General of Cavalry he bore to his 
death. 

In presenting, as nearly as may be in the order 
of time, the events of this good man's life, I must 



37 

not omit to mention one in this place, certainly 
of no inconsiderable importance, if only consider- 
ed as affecting our right judgment of his charac- 
ter. It was in the spring of 1787, when he was 
short of twenty-three years of age, in the vigor 
of manhood, just on the threshold of mature life, 
which sparkled brightly before him, with large 
possessions, and wealth enough to lay the world 
under contribution for whatever it can afford to 
pamper appetite and passion, and supply the means 
of wanton and luxurious indulgence 5 it was then, 
and under such circumstances, that he deliberate- 
ly chose, by a formal profession of religious faith, 
and a personal vow of religious obedience, ac- 
cording to the doctrines and discipline of the 
Christian Church as adopted by the Dutch Re- 
formers, to pledge himself to a life of temperance, 
simplicity, truth and purity. How well he kept 
his vow, is known to all who had occasion to ob- 
serve him ; and how eminently he was blest in 
keeping it, was seen in all those quarters, where, 
I think, the Christian is wont to look for the pro- 
mise of tlie life that now is — in the calm and 
quiet of a peaceful existence, in domestic relations 
of the most tender, harmonious and beautiful cha- 



38 

racter, and in a resigned, appropriate and happy 
death. 

Towards the close of the year 1787, the Con- 
vention which sat at Philadelphia to frame the 
Federal Constitution, terminated its labors, and 
submitted its work to the judgment of the peo- 
ple. All over the country a desperate conflict 
arose, and, no doubt, the fate of the Republic 
was suspended on the issue. Mr. Van Rens- 
selaer took ground promptly and decidedly in 
favor of the Constitution. In the Spring of 
1788, Delegates to the State Convention, which 
was to pass sentence of condemnation, or approval, 
on the Constitution, in the name of New York, 
were to be chosen from the county of Albany. 
The anti-federal parly, strong throughout the 
State, was particularly formidable here. This 
was the residence of Yates and Lansing, both 
popular and influential, and both of whom, hav- 
ing acted as Delegates, had left the Convention 
at Philadelphia before its labors were finished, 
and published a joint letter to the Governor, set- 
ting forth their reasons for refusing to put their 
names to the Constitution. That their counsels, 
and the counsels of those with whom they were 



39 

associated politically, would prevail in this quar- 
ter of the State, on this important trial of the 
strength of parties, was hardly to be doubted. 
Yet were the friends of the Constitution bound to 
make the effort, and, in so doing, to leave no part 
of their moral force out of the controversy. With 
this object, Mr. Van Rensselaer w as solicited, 
and consented, to stand as a Candidate for the 
Assembly, at the same election. The sway of 
anti-federal opinions and feelings at the period, 
may be estimated from the fact that, with all his 
personal popularity and influence — already very 
great in the district — he was beaten by an over- 
whelming majority. But popular majorities, even 
where the right of voting is restricted as it then 
was, are not always remarkable for their stabili- 
ty; and happy they should not be — certainly 
when they chance to be in the wrong. 

The Constitution having been adopted after a 
fearful struggle, the government was to be or- 
ganized and put in full operation under it. Ground 
enough of difference in regard to it, was still 
left — barely enough — for parties to stand on 5 but 
the popular mind began to sway strongly over to 
the side of the Constitution. In the Spring of 



40 

the very next year, 1789, Mr. Van Rensselaer 
was again a candidate for the Assembly, and was 
now carried into office by a majority nearly as 
great as that by which he had been before defeat- 
ed. And now, having once got right, never was 
a constituency more steadfast to a faithful public 
servantc In the course of the next forty years 
after, he had occasion often to try the strength of 
their attachment to him 5 and on no occasion did 
the county of Albany, whether comprising more 
or less territory, and whether the elective privi- 
lege was less or more extended, ever desert 
him. 

The first Session of the Legislature, to which 
Mr. Van Rennselaer was now elected, was 
held in the summer, under the Proclamation of 
the Governor, for the special purpose of electing, 
for the first time. Senators in Congress. The 
same question which has since, and more than 
once, been agitated, respecting the mode of election, 
divided the councils of the State at that period. 
The federal party, and those who desired to clothe 
the Federal Government with all necessary 
strength and stability, insisted on a mode of elec- 
tion which should give the Senate, equally with 



41 

the popular branch of the Legislature, a separate 
and independent action. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
was of this number. The anti-federal party pre- 
ferred a mode of election, by joint ballot or other- 
wise, which should subject Senators in Congress 
more certainly to the popular will of the State, as 
it should be currently expressed in the annual 
elections to the Assembly. The question to be 
sure was one growing out of the language of the 
Federal Constitution, and, therefore, a question of 
constitutional law 5 but men of different parties 
at that day, as well as at this, were wont to read 
the Constitution through an atmosphere of their 
own, usually too much clouded to allow the light 
from any objects to pass through it in straight 
lines 5 hence of course they read it differently, and 
not unfrequently both sides read it wrong. The 
Legislature on this occasion separated without 
settling on any mode of electing Senators — except 
for itself 5 Senators were elected by the Joint Re- 
solution of the two Houses. 

3Ir. Van Rensselaer was now fairly embark- 
ed in political life. The next spring — 1790 — he 
was elected to the Senate of the State, from the 
Western Senatorial District. When we look 



42 

over this State, and see what the West now isj 
we hardly know how to credit the fact that, with- 
in so few years, the County of Albany, on the 
North River, was one of the Western Counties 
of the State. In the spring of 1794, the same 
Senator from the same Western District was re- 
elected. He was a member of the Senate from 
his first election down to 1795; • In the whole of 
this Legislative period, he was a faithful, vigilant, 
highly influential and useful member. There were 
few standing Committees at that period j but he 
was from the first, and always, a member of one 
or more of these, and always of the most impor- 
tant. 

In the second year of his senatorial services, 
1792, parties were thrown into a prodigious ferment 
by certain proceedings of the State Canvassers, in 
regard to a portion of the votes taken at the Gu- 
bernatorial election of that year. Mr. Jay and 
Mr. Clinton had been the opposing candidates. 
The popular voice had declared itself, by a mode- 
rate majority, in favor of Mr. Jay 5 but the Can- 
vassers found some informalities, and legal diffi- 
culties, which induced them, by a party vote, to 
reject the returns from three counties, by which 



43 

Mr. Jay's majority was lost, and Mr. Clinton was 
declared elected. When the Legislature met in 
the autumn, petitions were poured in upon it from 
the people, and a legislative investigation was had. 
It appeared in testimony, that the rejected ballots 
had at first been regularly deposited in appropri- 
ate boxes in the record-room of the Office of the 
Secretary of State; and that afterwards, without 
consent obtained at the office, Mr. Thomas Til- 
lotson, a State Senator, and one of the Canvassers, 
in the presence however of several of his fellows, 
took from their place of deposit among the ar- 
chives of the State, the boxes containing the re- 
jected ballots, and committed them to the flames. 
However pure the motives for an act of this sort, 
the act itself was not one which was likely to meet 
the approbation of the pure and single-minded 
Van Rensselaer. His scornful reprobation of 
the part enacted by Mr. Tillotson, uttered in no 
equivocal terms, brought him into a personal col- 
lision with that gentleman, which was likely to put 
his life, or his reputation, or both, into imminent 
hazard. But those who attempted to deal with 
him had quite mistaken the temper of the man. 
Though one of the mildest of men in his ordinary 



44 

demeanor, he was yet one of the firmest. He was 
the last person on earth to be moved by intimi- 
dations. Being in the right, or thinking himself 
so, he would allow nothing to be wrung from him 
which would abate, by a feather's weight, the full 
moral force of the language he had used. Hap- 
pily, this admirable firmness, with the steadiness 
and quiet which distinguished his manner, when 
most pressed upon by difficulties and danger, sa- 
ved him from an abyss into which, no doubt, the 
least wavering or trepidation would have plunged 

him. 

When the next election for Governor approach- 
ed, in 1795, Mr. Jay was again placed in nomi- 
nation, and, with him, Mr. Van Rensselaer was 
nominated for Lt. Governor. The circumstan- 
ces under which Mr. Clinton had served, as Go- 
vernor, during the current term, were deemed, by 
his party, such as to render unwise his re-nomina- 
tion at the present time. Mr. Yates and Mr. 
Floyd were the opposing candidates. Mr. Jay . 
and Mr. Van Rensselaer were elected by hand- 
some majorities. In 1798, both were re-nomina- 
ted, and both re-elected, to the same offices. On 
this occasion. Chancellor Livingston was Mr. 



45 

Jay's opponent — only very lately his strong friend, 
political as well as personal. The Lt. Governor 
had no opposing candidate. He was named uni- 
versally throughout the State, by the anti-feder- 
alists, on their ticket with Chancellor Livingston. 
The design was to detach him, if possible, after 
the example of the Chancellor, from the federal 
party, and from the support of Gov. Jay. No 
doubt it was in his power to have given to the 
Chancellor and his friends a complete triumph. 
It is probable that no one individual in the State, 
at the period, carried with him a greater personal 
influence and sway. So desirable was it deemed 
to secure him, or at least to make the people be- 
lieve he was secured — that the Chancellor's party 
did not hesitate to employ the fact before the elec- 
tors, though without the least warrant, as if it had 
been true. Of course, he took the most prompt 
and effectual measures, to disabuse the public 
mind on a point of so much importance. 

I will not hesitate, on an occasion like this, and 
when dealing with matters of great historical in- 
terest, to say what I think. I think, then, that 
New York has never seen so pure an administra- 
tion of its government, as that which was conduct- 



46 

ed by Mr. Jay. I think this is already the settled 
verdict of an enlightened public sentiment. He 
could not have had, during the six years of his 
administration, a purer, or more worthy coadju- 
tor than Lt. Governor Van Rensselaer. Never 
could there have been, or could there be, a moral 
spectacle of higher beauty, than was seen in the 
lofty and universal harmonies of thought and in- 
tent, of feelings, character and purposes — the per- 
fect blending of harmonious colors, till nothing 
was visible but the white light of truth and integ- 
rity — when the honest and true-hearted Hugue- 
not, and the honest and true-hearted Dutchman 
united to administer the government of a free 
people. 

It is not surprising then, when the community 
— such of them as were attached to the adminis- 
tration and principles of Gov. Jay — came to look 
after a fit person to be his successor, that all eyes 
should have rested on the Lt. Governor. In 
January, 1801, a large body of the most respect- 
able freeholders, from various and distant parts of 
the State, assembled at the Tontine Coffee House 
in Albany, and unanimously named Mr. Van 
Rensselaer as their candidate for Governor at 



47 

the ensuing election. How he received this mark 
of pubhc approbation and esteem, and with what 
difficulty his acceptance was finally obtained, ap- 
pears from the publications of the time. His op- 
ponets, for lack of better matter, took serious ex- 
ceptions, if not to him, to his party, because he 
had given to the invitation, more than once, a po- 
sitive refusal. His nomination was enthusiasti- 
cally seconded in the City of New York, and in 
public meetings held in every quarter of the State. 
His election was advocated everywhere by his 
friends, on grounds which shewed that his charac- 
ter — young as he was — was already developed, 
and was thoroughly understood and appreciated. 
His competent acquaintance with the interests 
and business of the State 5 his tried and reliable 
judgment 5 his unconquerable firmness 5 his deci- 
sion and energy in emergencies 5 his purity j his 
many virtues j his retiring and domestic habits 5 
his humility ; his urbane and gentle manners — 
these were the qualities attributed to him by his 
friends, and in no case denied by his opponents. 
The rage of party politics was becoming extreme, 
and, in their rancor, poisoned the blood of friends 
and families, and seemed ready, vulture-like, to 



48 

tear the vitals of the Repubhc. He was the man 
— so at least his friends thought — above any other 
man of the period — ^the man of peace — fitted to 
soften the asperities, to reconcile the enmities and 
calm the turbulent agitations of the time. If his 
opponents thought differently, they scarcely ven- 
tured to say so. They thought he was rich, and 
that those with whom he had business relations 
would be likely to vote for him, and hence they 
thought the genuineness of his republican princi- 
ples was fairly to be doubted — this they thought, 
and this they ventured to say. But I should do 
a great wrong to the party opposed to him, if I 
should leave it to be inferred that he was defeated 
on such grounds— or that I supposed so. Mr. 
Clinton, after having been laid aside for six years, 
was now brought forward as his opposing candid- 
ate. Mr. Clinton was popular, and there was 
much in his character and history to make him 
deservedly so. But besides this, the Republican 
party — in which the anti-federalists were now 
merged — had acquired prodigious strength from 
the serious apprehensions which were felt in the 
country on account of some of the measures, and 
the apparent tendencies of the Federal Govern- 



49 

ment, in the course of the last four years. In the 
midst of the campaign in this State, the election 
of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency was announc- 
ed 5 the fate of parties in this State was decided, 
and decided for a long time to come. Mr. Van 
Rensselaer was defeated, by a majority of a lit- 
tle less than four thousand votes. 

With this defeat, Mr. Van Rensselaer's offi- 
cial service in the civil departments of the Gov- 
ernment — with a single exception, to which I shall 
advert directly — was ended for several years. I 
feel certain that, oh his own account, he was very 
far from regretting this discomfiture. It left him, 
as it chanced, the very leisure and quiet, which 
he needed. It was in the month of March of this 
year, and while the election canvass was going on 
most actively and virulently, that he was called 
to part with the companion and wife of his youth. 
How sensibly he was affected by it, I have reason 
to know, when nearly thirty years afterwards, he 
referred to this event in a very touching manner, 
and, with many tears, poured his generous sym- 
pathy into the bosom of a friend under similar be- 
reavement. By his first marriage, he had three 

6 



50 

children, one of whom only — his eldest son — sur- 
vives. 

In October, 1801, a State Convention met at 
Albany to consider and revise the Constitution, in 
regard to two specified subjects. One of these 
subjects was the proper construction to be given 
to the twenty-third Article of the Constitution, 
which established the old Council of Appointment. 
A violent party controversy had arisen in Mr. 
Jay's time, concerning the right of nomination. 
It was claimed by the Governor, from precedent 
and otherwise, to belong exclusively to him 5 the 
members of the Council challenged an equal right 
to make nominations. The Convention was call- 
ed mainly to determine this question, and, having 
a strong party character, was regarded as hav- 
ing been instructed to reverse the doctrine and de- 
cision of the Governor. The subject of our Memoir 
was a member of this body, and w as opposed to 
the majority. Col. Burr was the President, but 
Mr. Van Rensselaer presided during much the 
greater part of the deliberations, as Chairman of 
the Committee of the Whole. 

In May, 1802, Mr. Van Rensselaer formed 
an appropriate, and highly fortunate and happy 



51 

matrimonial union with Cornelia, only daughter 
of the late William Patterson, a distinguished 
citizen of New Jersey, and one of the Judges of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. This 
excellent lady, and nine children of the marriage, 
survive the husband and father. Delicacy would 
forbid my saying more of the hving than concerns 
the just memory of the dead. These children 
are all of an age to have developed already their 
individual characters ; and to those who, like my- 
self, believe that the characters of children, as a 
general thing, are just what they are educated to 
be at the domestic board, they afford the most 
satisfactory and gratifying proof that the exam- 
ple, instruction and influence of the parents have 
been worthy of all approbation. 

In 1807, the subject of our notice was elected 
to the Assembly, and with him, as a colleague, 
his early and tried friend, Abraham Van Vechten. 
They were elected and served together in the As- 
sembly for three successive years. 

In 1810, he was called to a new and distin- 
guished service. In March of that year, a 
Commission was instituted by the Legislature, for 
exploring a route for a Western Canal 5 and then 



52 

was laid the foundation of that great system of 
Internal Improvements by which New York has 
so much signalized herself. Seven persons com- 
posed the Commission — though all, I think, did 
not act. Mr. Van Rensselaer's was the second 
name 5 the first was that of Governeur Morris 5 
Mr. Clinton was one of the number. In the sum- 
mer of this year, these gentlemen, accompanied 
by a surveyor, personally inspected and explored 
the route of a Canal from the Hudson to Erie. 
They travelled for the most part on horseback 5 
not always without serious difficulty and much 
deprivation, from the uncultivated state of the coun- 
try 5 sometimes they made the Canopy their cover- 
ing and shelter for the night. They made their Re- 
port in February, 1811. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
was in the Assembly when the project of this Com- 
mission was first agitated, and, startling as the 
idea was to most men at that day, he entered 
warmly and heartily into the measure, and con- 
tributed materially to its success, by his exertions 
and influence. From the earliest period, he 
was the unwavering and efficient friend of the 
Erie Canal. 

The favorable Report made by the Commis- 



53 

sioners on this occasion, drawn by Mr. Morris, 
with consummate ability, and yet not without 
great defects, gave an impulse to the Canal pro- 
ject which it never wholly lost, though it shortly 
after suffered interruption by the intervention of 
the war. In April, 1811, the Legislature again 
acted on the project, by raising a Commission to 
consider " of all matters relating to inland navi- 
gation." Mr. Van Rensselaer was still one 
of the Commissioners. It was proposed by this 
Commission, to enlist Congress, and as far as pos- 
sible the States individually, to contribute their 
aid and support to the work — a scheme which, 
most happily, completely failed. In March, 1812, 
the Commissioners reported, and appealed strong- 
ly and eloquently to the pride of New- York, to 
construct the Canal, from her own resources, and 
on her own account. The appeal was so far ef- 
fectual, that the Legislature, in June, authorized 
them to borrow five millions of dollars, on the 
credit of the State, for the prosecution of the en- 
terprise. The war occuring just then, the project 
slept for nearly four years. 

The War with Great Britain was declared in 
June, 1812. This occurrence brought with it, 



54 

the great crisis in the pubhc life of our worthy 
and distinguished fellow-citizen. The country 
was without any adequate preparation for the 
conflict j a state of things which, from the neces- 
sity of our political condition and the frame of 
our institutions, must always exist, I apprehend, 
whenever, and as often as we may be driven to 
make our appeal to arms. Such, at any rate, was 
the case now. Gen. Dearborn had been assigned 
to the command of the Northern frontier, with 
some undigested designs upon Canada. He es- 
tablished his Head Quarters at Greenbush, as 
being on the open and natural military route to 
the enemy's territory, by way of Lake Champlain. 
But there was a great deficiency of troops for any 
offensive operations. A regular army, of much 
magnitude, is not to be recruited and disciplined 
for service, in such a country as ours, without 
time. And hence the necessity in all such cases 
of a resort to the Militia. The first reliance for 
defence, at least, if not for conquest, must be upon 
citizen soldiers. A requisition was made on Gov. 
Tompkins, to order into immediate service a con- 
siderable body of New York Militia. The 
patriot Governor promptly obeyed the requisitiouj 



55 

and selected Major General Stephen Van Rens- 
selaer for the Command. 

The public relations between these two indi- 
viduals were peculiar, and deserve to be stated. 
They were already regarded as rival candidates 
for the Chief Magistracy of the State at the next 
Spring's election — the friends of the General 
having already named him for that office in their 
own circles. The lines of party, too, were now 
very distinctly drawn, and it was the war that 
was made to divide them. The federalists were 
charged by their opponents, not only with being 
hostile to the war as having been both prema- 
ture and unnecessary, but also with dispositions 
and designs averse to its vigorous or successful 
prosecution. Gen. Van Rensselaer was a 
federalist, and about to become the candidate of 
the federal party for the office of Governor, and 
to him, therefore, without any express declaration 
to the contrary, might, perhaps, with an equal 
show of justice, be attributed the same unpatriotic 
and odious sentiments which were imputed to the 
great body of his friends. Without any desire, 
or attempt, to penetrate the motives which led to 
the selection of the General for command under 



56 

such circumstances, and admitting that they 
might have been good and even generous, it is 
easy to see that, personally, the General was 
placed in a position of extreme embarrassment 
and hazard, and that results of great political im- 
portance might flov^r from any determination he 
might make. If he should decline the command, 
the proof of a culpable defection, against both 
him and his party, would be complete. On the 
other hand, considering his own inexperience in 
the trade and business of war, the impracticable 
materials he had to deal with, and the very extra- 
ordinary extent of exposed and defenceless terri- 
tory committed to his immediate military care 
and keeping— being no less than the entire 
" Northern and Western frontiers of the State 
between St. Regis and Pennsylvania"*— consider- 
ing these things, and considering, too, how often 
misfortune alone, in warlike operations, though 
accompanied with unexceptionable conduct, 
brings with it the most thorough disgrace, we 
cannot help seeing that his acceptance of this 
command must subject him, personally, to a fiery 



General Orders of the Commander in Chief— July 13, 18 IS 



57 

ordeal, from which he might escape unharmed, 
and possibly with a burnished and brighter fame, 
but where the chances were fearfully prevalent 
that he would be utterly consumed. 

But the noble-minded man did not for an in- 
stant hesitate, when the question was between a 
probable sacrifice of himself, and a possible ser- 
vice of great value rendered to his country 
within the line of his admitted duty. Whatever 
might be the views of other federalists, his own 
were sound and thoroughly patriotic. It was his 
country that called him to the field, and that was 
a voice which he could never disobey. Nor was 
he a loiterer, or a laggard. In an incredibly 
short time, after receiving the order, he had form- 
ed, with excellent and ready judgment, his mili- 
tary family, thrown ofi' the citizen and put on the 
soldier, and, having taken hasty leave of the do- 
mestic circle at the Manor House — from which he 
parted under circumstances of the most delicate 
and tender interest — he took up his line of march 
for the Frontier. In ten days only from the date 
of his orders, we find him at Ogdensburgh, hav- 
ing visited and inspected the post at Sackett's 
Harbor, on his way. On the 13th of August, he 

H 



58 

was in the camp at Lewiston— just one month 
from the date of the call that had been made 
upon him 5 and just two months from that day — 
on the 13th of October— in one of the most gal- 
lant and brilliant affairs of the whole war, he car- 
ried his victorious arms into the enemy's territory, 
and planted the American flag triumphantly on 
the Heights of Queenstown. Unhappily, it was 
a triumph of brief duration. He gained a com- 
)lete and glorious victory 5 sufficient, if main- 
tained, as it might have been, to have secured the 
Peninsula of the Upper Province of Canada for 
the winter, as a conquest to the American arms 5 
but a victory lost as soon as won, by the shame- 
ful cowardice and defection of his troops. 

I cannot, in this place, enter into a history of 
this campaign, or of the brilliant, but finally dis- 
astrous affair with which it closed. The abundant 
materials are already before his countrymen, 
from which their judgment, and that of posterity, 
will be made up. There, I think, with perfect 
security, may his friends rest his claims as a mili- 
tary Commander. His merits in this respect will 
brighten, as the current of time runs on, and 
wears away the error, the envy and the prejudice 



59 

of the day. It is the soldier's hard task to con- 
quer difficulties, as well as enemies. He did it. 
It would not be easy to find another instance, in 
which an army has been gathered — created I may 
say — and formed into a well-trained and well- 
disciplined corps, fit for active and efficient ser- 
vice, in so brief a space of time, with such 
wretched materials, under such adverse and dis- 
couraging circumstances, and where there was 
such an utter destitution of appropriate and ne- 
cessary means. The plan, too, which he project- 
ed, for bringing the brief campaign to a brilliant 
close, the moment that he found himself possessed 
of an army — by which he proposed to conquer 
and possess himself of an extensive border terri- 
tory of the enemy 5 cut off* the forces of the ene- 
my in the upper country, just flushed with vic- 
tory, from all communication with the lower 
country 5 wipe out the disgrace with which the 
American arms had been already tarnished in 
that quarter 5 procure winter lodgings for his 
soldiers in the comfortable dwellings of a British 
town, easily and safely accessible with all kinds 
of supplies 5 and be ready, in the Spring, to begin 
a new campaign, with superior and eminent ad- 



60 

vantages already secured — a plan perfectly prac- 
ticable, with reliable troops — not only justifiable 
at the time he formed it, but positively justified by 
every thing that subsequently transpired — this 
plan must forever commend itself to the approval 
and admiration of his countrymen, as having been 
formed with the discretion, the judgment and the 
skill of a master in the trade of war. I allude, 
here, to his enterprize originally planned, by 
which Fort George would have been stormed by 
the regular troops, while he should have carried 
the Heights, and by which, at one blow, the con- 
quest of the Peninsula would have been com- 
plete — an enterprize which certainly failed only 
for want of co-operation, where co-operation was 
due by every consideration of patriotism and 
honor. 

In regard to the enterprize, which he actually 
attempted, and which formed only a part of the 
original design, there is little hazard, at this time 
of day, in saying, that it was perfectly feasible, 
well devised, and skillfully executed. It was, 
moreover, as an enterprize, completely successful. 
With a mere handful of men, the Heights were 
carried early in the morning, under the direction 



61 

of his Aid, the brave Col. Solomon Van Rens- 
selaer 5 and they remained in his possession till 
late in the afternoon of that day. The position 
was one that was easily defensible, and he had 
within trumpet-call men enough, twice or thrice 
over, to have maintained it, and put at defiance 
any force with which the enemy might or could 
have assailed him. And yet, after all this, he 
must see his victory turned into defeat and his 
triumph into disaster, by the shameful refusal of 
his yeoman soldiery, under the plea of constitu- 
tional scruples, to march into the safe camp that 
had already been won for them on the other side 
of the lines ! 

The official account of this affair, furnished by 
the Commanding General the next day after its 
occurrence, was strongly characteristic of the 
man. It was a simple and unvarnished relation 
of facts and events j the truth was plainly told 5 
but no complaint was made, no reproaches were 
uttered. His own duty had been done, and fear- 
lessly and faithfully done; and with perfect 
equanimity and confidence he submitted himself 
to the judgment of his Country. He expressed 



62 

regrets on her account, but he intimated none 
whatever on his own. 

In the sequel of this severe and sanguinary 
conflict, the General found occasion for the exer- 
cise of that sympathizing and generous kindness 
by which he was so much distinguished 5 and he 
seems to have met in the British General Sheaffe, 
a correspondent temper. On one side, General 
Brock had fallen 5 on the other. Col. Van Rens- 
selaer was desperately wounded 5 and there were 
other brave spirits on both sides, who had shared 
the fate of one or the other of these. A cessa- 
tion of all hostile demonstrations was agreed 
upon. For six days, the throat of brazen war 
was closed, while, with the tender of mutual ser- 
vices, the parties on either side proceeded to dis- 
charge the offices of humanity due to the living, 
and pay to the dead the appropriate tribute and 
ceremonies of respect. Gen. Sheafie offered 
every thing his camp could afford to promote the 
comfort of the wounded Col. Van Rensselaer. 
Gen. Van Rensselaer informed his antagonist 
that he should order a salute to be fired at his 
camp, and also at Fort Nigara, on the occasion 
of the funeral solemnities of the brave and la- 



63 

merited Brock. " I feel too strongly," said the 
stern but afflicted Gen. Sheaffe, " the generous 
tribute which you propose to pay to my departed 
friend and chief, to be able to express the sense I 
entertain of it. Noble-minded as he was, so 
would he have done himself." 

With the campaign just referred to, closed the 
services of Gen. Van Rensselaer in the field. 
The next Spring, 1813, the Gubernatorial elec- 
tion was to come on, when the contest for power 
in the State between him and Gov. Tompkins, or 
rather between their respective parties, was to be 
decided. The General's friends shewed that, in 
his brief military career, he had lost none of the 
high consideration and confidence with which 
they had been used to regard him, by placing him 
promptly, and with great unanimity, in open nomi- 
nation as their candidate for the Chair of State 5 
and when the time came, they gave him a hearty 
support. But his party was found to be, as it had 
long been, in a minority. He was defeated, but 
with a majority against him of only 3600, out of 
eighty-three thousand votes which had been cast 
in the canvass. 

With no disquieting ambition for political dis- 



64 

tinction, and a candidate for high office at any time, 
only by a reluctant submission to the will and 
judgment of his friends, Gen. Van Rensselaer 
was not a man to feel any regrets on his own ac- 
count, for defeat at an election canvass. In his 
own affairs, in his own family, and in the secret 
opportunities which he was always seeking for 
the practice of benevolence, he had resources 
enough for the agreeable and useful occupation 
of all his time. 

During all the period of the war, it should be 
remembered, that the Commission which had 
been instituted for the promotion of Internal Im- 
provement, by a great Canal, and of which he 
was a member, continued in existence. The war 
was no sooner ended, than measures were taken 
to revive the subject, and the interest which had 
been felt in it. A Memorial, on the subject, of 
great ability, drawn by Mr. Clinton, was present- 
ed to the Legislature of 1816, and in March of 
the same year, the Commissioners, with Mr. Van 
Rensselaer at their head and acting as Chair- 
man, presented their Report, setting forth the 
difficulties which had been interposed to prevent 
the execution of the trusts confided to them four 



65 

years before, and urging the Legislature to re- 
new the authority, to adopt immediate measures 
for the prosecution of the enterprize. In April, 
1816, the law was passed by the Legislature, 
which authorized and directed this great work to 
be entered upon 5 and the management and exe- 
cution of it were committed to a Board of Canal 
Commissioners, of whom — as usual — Gen. Van 
Rensselaer was one. From that period down 
to his death, he was a member of that body, and 
he was the President of the Board for nearly fif- 
teen years — from April, 1824, when the name of 
his friend, the great Clinton, was struck from the 
roll of Commissioners. In the Spring of 1816, 
he was again, and for the last time, elected to the 
Assembly of the State 5 and his presence and in- 
fluence in that body in the Session of 1817, were 
especially useful as affecting those immense in- 
terests — as yet but little understood, much abused 
and contemned, and most violently opposed — 
which belonged to the Canals, and the system of 
Internal Improvements, then in the extremest 
weakness of their infancy. 

I shall have occasion directly to advert more 
particularly to the important services rendered by 



66 

Gen. Van Rensselaer to the cause of Learning 
and Education 5 and I will simply refer, there- 
fore, in this place, as being in the proper order of 
time, to the official connection which he had with 
our State system of Public Instruction. In 
March, 1819, he was elected by the Legislature 
a Regent of the State University, and at the 
time of his death he was the Chancellor, having 
been elevated to that station, on the decease of 
the late venerable Simeon De Witt, in 1835. 

In 1821, the present Constitution of this State 
was formed. In the progress of time, since the 
old Constitution was framed, ideas were found to 
have advanced also. Changes were deemed ne- 
cessary, as well to meet a condition of things in 
some respects new, as to satisfy the demands of a 
generation which thought itself— and should have 
been, if it was not — wiser than that which had 
preceded it. But wherever the spirit of reform 
is abroad and active, and speculations and theo- 
ries in matters of government are broached 
freely, and Councils are to be held with a view to 
giving body and effect to the conceptions of ar- 
dent minds, it is not unimportant to secure the 
presence and assistance of a few men of conser- 



67 

vative tempers and habits, in order to make sure, 
if possible, that the deep foundations of things 
shall not be wholly broken up, nor the moral ele- 
ments of society utterly dissipated and destroyed. 
In the Convention of 1821, a few spirits of this 
sort were gathered, and of these, by no means the 
least valuable among them, was Stephen Van 
Rensselaer. He brought with him there, his 
character — one of uncommon purity 5 his expe- 
rience — not now inconsiderable 5 his steadfastness 
of principle 5 his notions of men and things — de- 
scended from old schools, but fashioned and mod- 
ernized in the new 5 his excellent strong sense, 
and his judgment of almost intuitive accuracy 
and soundness; and with such qualifications, 
without being accustomed either to write much 
or debate much, it would be hard to say if there 
was another member of the Convention, among 
all the great and good names that belonged to 
it, who was more valuable, or more indispen- 
sable than himself, if the business of that body 
was to be brought to a safe and happy con- 
clusion. 

In considering the doings of that Convention, 
it is evident that nothing, in all the various business 



68 

undertaken by it, was equal in magnitude of in- 
terest to tlie single question in regard to the Right 
of Suffrage. Here the firm foundations both of 
Government and of Freedom were to be laid; 
while the danger was that, at this very point, if 
not sufficiently guarded, a flood might be let in 
to sweep both Government and Freedom away in 
ruins. Mr. Van Rensselaer was one of the 
Committee appointed to consider and report on 
this momentous subject. He dissented from the 
Report made to the Convention by a majority of 
the Committee, and he submitted to the Conven- 
tion a Proposition of his own, as a substitute for the 
Report, which he accompanied with some remarks, 
briefly explanatory of his views and apprehen- 
sions on this great question. 

It must be remembered, that up to this period, 
none but freeholders had been allowed to vote for 
the higher officers of government. Not only had 
a property qualification been adopted, but retain- 
ing the old notions, evidently of feudal origin, re- 
specting the superior value and sacredness of 
landed possessions, the former Constitution of 
the State had thrown the higher and most im- 
portant branches of the government exclusively 



69 

into the hands of the landed interest. Mr. Van 
Rensselaer was the largest landed proprietor in 
the State, and he had inherited his interest in the 
soil originally from a feudal source, and held it by 
a feudal title 5 but he was an enlightened and 
patriotic citizen of a free State, and, as such, he 
was ready to take his chance with others under 
the protection of a government essentially popu- 
lar and free. He had no difficulty whatever in 
agreeing to the propriety of at once abolishing 
the old distinctions between landed and personal 
property as affecting the higher rights of citizen- 
ship, and making the qualification of electors for 
all the officers of government equal and uniform. 
And he was equally ready to abandon the notion 
of a property qualification of any sort for elec- 
tors. He agreed perfectly to the principle — 
which was the one professedly adopted by his 
colleagues of the Committee^ — that those who 
really contribute to the support and the defence 
of the government, should make the government. 
So far he was willing and anxious to go ; but 
here he would stop. He insisted upon guarding 
the principle strictly, by limiting the privilege to 
such as should seem to have something of the 



70 

character of fixedness and stability in their resi- 
dence, and their attachment to the State, and he 
was entirely unwilling to extend this privilege — to 
use his own expression — to " a wandering popula- 
tion, men who are no where to be found when the 
enemy, or the tax-gatherer comes." Believing that, 
in pushing a theory into details, the Committee 
would violate the maxims of a sound and practical 
policy, by some of their propositions, he felt 
himself bound to dissent from the conclusions 
of their Report. He conducted his opposition, 
before the Convention, as he had done in Com- 
mittee, in his own direct and manly way j and 
presenting a distinct Amendment of his own, he 
exerted himself to induce the Convention to place 
the Right of Suffrage on a ground, at once, accord- 
ing to his opinions, of great liberality and of per- 
fect safety. But his opinions were not the opin- 
ions of the majority of the Convention, and his 
efforts, and the efforts of those with whom he 
was more immediately associated, though not 
without their strong and salutary influence, were 
in the main unsuccessful. After a long and la- 
borious Session, the new Constitution was adopt- 
ed by the Convention. There had been other 



71 

subjects of disagreement, of great magnitude and 
importance, among the members 5 and Mr. Van 
Rensselaer, with twenty-two others, dcchned to 
give their assent and sanction to the Instrument, 
by putting their names to it. 

In 1819, the Legislature of this State was in- 
duced, through the exertions of a number of dis- 
interested and patriotic gentlemen, among whom 
was Mr. Van Rensselaer, to pass an Act for 
the encouragement and improvement of Agricul- 
ture. A sum of money was appropriated, to be 
divided rateably among the several Counties of 
the State 5 County Societies were to be formed 
with the proper officers *, and the Presidents of 
these Societies, or Delegates instead of the 
Presidents from such of them as should choose 
to elect them, were to form a Central Board of 
Agriculture. Such was the outline of the pro. 
posed organization. In January, 1820, the Pre- 
sidents, or Delegates, from twenty-six County 
Societies, already organized, met at the Capitol 
in Albany, and elected Stephen Van Rens- 
selaer President of the Board. The life of this 
Board of Agriculture was made a very brief one 
by law, and when the legal limit was out, it 



72 

was suffered to expire. It lasted long enough, 
however, to demonstrate the inappreciable value 
of legislative aid and encouragement to the Agri- 
cultural interest 5 and it raised to itself an endu- 
ring and noble monument, by the publication of 
three very valuable volumes of Transactions and 
Memoires. 

Each of the first two volumes of the Board, 
contains, amongst other things, a very curious 
and remarkable Paper. These Papers present a 
complete view of the Geological and Agricultu- 
ral features of the Counties of Albany and Rens- 
selaer, as gathered from accurate and minute 
surveys, and from actual and extensive analyses. 
They are the Reports of distinguished scientific 
gentlemen, employed, exclusively at the expense 
of the President of the Board of Agriculture, 
to make the examinations and surveys, the results 
of which are here embodied. It was believed 
then, and it is believed now, that these were the 
first attempts made in this country, " to collect 
and arrange Geological facts, with a direct view 
to the improvement of Agriculture." The time, 
perhaps, has not even yet come, when the in- 
calculable advantages of such a labor are gene- 



73 

rally appreciated ; but I express only my hum- 
ble and sober conviction, when I say, that in the' 
example of these attempts, and their success — 
followed up as they will be in time, to swell the 
profits and increase the business and the benefits 
of Agriculture, and withal to connect this em- 
ployment with better knowledge, and a competent 
degree of scientific attainment, in the cultivators 
of the soil — he has rendered a higher service to 
his country, than if he had been the man to 
win twenty hard-fought battles for her in a just 
and necessary war. 

The laws for the encouragement of Agricul- 
ture expired, as I have said, by their own limi- 
tation 5 and all attempts to revive them from that 
day to this — strange that it should be so — have 
proved utterly unavailing. But Mr. Van Rens- 
selaer, though without any convenient Society, 
or Board of Agriculture, under cover of whose 
name he might pursue his plans for the benefit of 
the State, had only just now entered on a se- 
ries of extraordinary efforts and experiments for 
the advancement of science, of education, and 
the public prosperity, which he afterwards pro- 
secuted with equal perseverance and effect. 

K 



74 

After the surveys of the counties of Albany and 
Rensselaer had been completed, under his direc- 
tion, presenting, besides a view of their Geologi- 
cal formations, a thorough analysis of their soils, 
in all their principal varieties — on a plan new 
at the time, and since extensively approved and 
employed — and accompanied, particularly in the 
survey of Rensselaer county, with a view of the 
proper Methods of Culture adapted to the various 
soils 5 and after he had caused the Surveys to be 
published, at his own cost, in a separate and con- 
venient form, for extensive and gratuitous dis- 
tribution; he next turned his attention to a 
more extended scientific survey, to be carried 
through the entire length of the State on the 
line of the Erie Canal. This was commen- 
ced and prosecuted, under his orders, in the 
fall of 1822, by Professor Amos Eaton, aided by 
two competent Assistants. The next year, by 
the direction of his Patron, the work was re- 
sumed, and the survey greatly extended. The 
truth seems to be, that, although the surveys of 
Albany and Rensselaer Counties were made, at 
the time, with an avowed and more immediate 
reference to the interests of Agriculture, yet they 



75 

were not, even then, unconnected with a plan 
which had been formed for offering a large and 
generous contribution to the science of Geology. 
This plan embraced a particular examination of 
the strata and formation of American rocks, by 
the survey of a transverse section, running across 
the great primitive ranges of New England, and 
the transition and secondary ranges of Eastern 
and Western Nev/-York. With the experience 
obtained in the local examinations already refer- 
red to, and a partial review of the Erie Canal 
line. Professor Eaton completed, in 1823, his 
grand Survey. His section extended from Bos- 
ton to Lake Erie, a distance of about five hun- 
dred and fifty miles, stretching across nine de- 
grees of longitude, and embracing a belt about 
fifty miles wide. At the same time. Prof. Hitch- 
cock was employed to make a similar survey of a 
section across New England, a few miles North 
of that taken by Prof, Eaton. In 1824, a Publi- 
cation was made, containing the results of these 
surveys, with maps exhibiting a profile view of 
the. rocks in each of the sections. It is not, I be- 
lieve, to be doubted, that this work presents a 
connected view of mineral masses, with their na- 



•76 

ture and order, taken from actual inspection 
and survey, of greater extent than had ever 
before been offered to Geology. Discoveries 
were made, and a mass of facts was gathered, 
which could not fail, as they did not, to arouse 
and quicken enquiry and investigation, and con- 
tribute essentially and largely to advance Geologi- 
cal Science. Attention was strongly attracted, 
both in this country and in Europe, to the very 
creditable and faithful labors of Prof Eaton, pro- 
secuted under the direction of his munificent Pa- 
tron j and this example it was, unquestionably, 
which has led, at last, to^the adoption in several 
of the States, and this among the number, of 
plans for exploring their territories at the pub- 
lic expense, in search of scientific facts, and of 
the mineral riches, and other substances of econ- 
omical value, to be found upon or beneath the 
surface of their respective portions of the 
earth. 

But the crowning effort of this good man's 
life — whom we have now followed on, in his 
career, to his three score years — remains to be 
noticed. It was an effort in behalf of the dearest 
interest of his country, and of mankind 5 it was 



77 

an effort to advance the cause of Education, and 
human improvement. He had satisfied himself 
that there were great defects in the ordinary and 
prevalent systems of Instruction 5 at any rate he 
saw that some of the most useful subjects of hu- 
man knowledge were scarcely communicated at 
all, in quarters where they seemed most needed 
for the practical purposes of life 5 and he de- 
termined that the proper remedy, if possible 
should be applied. 

His first movement was to employ Prof Eaton, 
with a competent number of Assistants, to 
traverse the State, on or near the route of the Erie 
Canal, with sufficient apparatus, specimens and the 
like, and deliver, in all the principal villages 
and towns where an audience of business men, or 
others, could be gathered, familiar Lectures, ac- 
companied with experiments and illustrations, on 
Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and some or all of 
the branches of Natural History. This scientific 
and educational progress through the State, was 
made in the summer of 1824, at the Patron's cost 5 
inconsiderable contributions only having been 
made in the villages where Lectures were de- 
livered. The experiment was entirely successful ; 



78 

a prodigious interest in behalf of natural science 
had been excited 5 and the Patron was encourag- 
ed to prosecute a plan of operations which he had 
meditated for a considerable time. 

He had long been accustomed to send the 
schoolmaster abroad among the poorer portions 
of his numerous tenantry 5 and he had been led 
to observe, as the result of these experiments — 
having been obliged to employ persons, for this 
service, of very slender qualifications, for want 
of better — that the improvement of the masters, 
as a general thing, was much more considerable 
than that of their pupils. It was from this hint, 
that he was led to consider, and finally to digest, 
a plan for a school, the leading feature of which 
should be, that the learner should himself take 
the place, and perform the regular duties, of 
teacher or instructor, in all the business and ex- 
ercises of the school. Securing, in this way, as 
he believed he should, the most ready and tho- 
rough improvement of the students, he proposed 
that the chief business of the School should be 
to furnish instruction "in the application of 
Science to the common purposes of life." He de- 
clared one of his principal objects to be " to qual- 



79 

ify teachers for instructing the sons and daugh- 
ters of Mechanics, in the appHcation of Experi- 
mental Chemistry, Philosophy, and Natural His- 
tory, to Agriculture, Domestic Economy, and the 
Arts and Manufactures." 

On the 5th of November, 1824, having pro- 
vided a suitable building at Troy, and employ- 
ed an Agent to procure the necessary Apparatus 
and Library, he enclosed to the Rev. Dr. Blatch- 
ford, a set of Orders for the government of the 
School, and requested him to proceed to its or- 
ganization, and act himself as President of a 
Board of Trustees, whom he named. He named, 
at the same time, a Senior and a Junior Profes- 
sor, whom he endowed with liberal salaries. The 
Senior Professor was Mr. Eaton, who had al- 
ready been engaged to take the charge of in- 
struction in the Institution. The School was 
soon after organized, and put into successful ope- 
ration. In 1826, it was incorporated, and is 
now known as the Rensselaer Institute. Its suc- 
cess, under the care of the veteran Eaton, has 
been complete — but with a very heavy and con- 
tinued outlay on the part of its generous Patron. 
Instruction in the Sciences is wholly experimen- 



80 

tal and demonstrative, and it is always, therefore, 
practical and thorough. 

In 1828, the Patron, after having, at his own 
cost, established and liberally endowed this School, 
and while he was, then as since, bearing from his 
own purse, not less than one half of its current ex- 
penses, caused an invitation to be given to each 
County in the State, to furnish a student, selected 
by the Clerk of the County, for gratuitous in- 
struction at the Institute.* The invitation was 
accepted in nearly all the Counties, and that large 
number of persons, within less than three years, 
was sent forth from the Institute, with a com- 
plete practical education, obtained without the 
cost of a dollar to them for tuition. Other in- 
stances of instruction there, wholly gratuitous, 
have not been wanting. 

The Patron first proposed to himself to sus- 
tain this School, as an experiment, for three 
years, with a reasonable expectation certainly, 
that at the end of that time, if successful at all. 



* The Patron, however, imposed on these Students a condition — the bene- 
fits of which would of course go to the Community — that they should instruct 
in their own Counties for one year, on the experimental and demonstrative 
method. 



81 

public attention would be sufficiently attracted to- 
wards this novel method, to enable him to hand it 
over to the community, with a confident reliance 
on the patronage of the public to support and 
perpetuate it. But all observation shews that no 
improvements are so slow in gaining adoption 
and support at the hands of the community, as 
improvements in the methods of Education. In 
this case, almost of course, while the Patron saw 
at the end of three years, that the advantages se- 
cured by his methods and course of instruction 
were great, beyond all his original expectations, 
he yet saw that the public must continue to enjoy 
them, if at all, for years to come, chiefly at his 
cost. He submitted to the sacrifice, and thus has 
this invaluable institution been continued for up- 
wards of fourteen years. 

The course of instruction in this Institution 
has been considerably enlarged since its organiza- 
tion, by the direction of the Patron. It may be 
described as a School for thorough and com- 
plete instruction in the circle of the natural 
Sciences, applicable, in any way, to the econo- 
my or the business of life, in all its civil depart- 
ments—not, however, including those usually de- 

L 



82 

nominated professional. The peculiarity in the 
mode of instruction, originally introduced, has 
been adhered to 5 and the distinguishing and emi- 
nent advantage gained by this peculiarity of 
method has been, not only that the students them- 
selves have been thoroughly taught, and are 
ready, at all times, professionally or otherwise, 
to make a practical and highly useful application 
of their knowledge, for their own benefit or the 
benefit of others, but that, whether such is their 
occupation and business, or not, they go out to 
the world as an army of Teachers, so familiar 
with the various subjects of their knowledge, and 
so fitted and accustomed, from long habit, to im- 
part it, that they become involuntarily the school- 
masters and instructors of every circle into which 
they enter. They are lights and luminaries to 
the prevalent darkness that may surround them, 
gentle and mild, but radiant and steady, in what- 
ever orbit they may chance to move. 

It is impossible to compute, or perhaps to give 
any rational conjecture, about the amount of good 
which has already been effected through this mu- 
nificent and skillfully-devised charity — much more 
impossible is it to compass, in thought, the bene- 



83 

fits which coming generations must reap from that 
system and plan of Education, of which the ex- 
ample was first set, and the eminent utility sat- 
isfactorily tested, in the Rensselaer Institute. 
Schools have been set up on the Rensselaer 
method, in various and distant parts of our coun- 
try 5 and it has been stated to me as a fact, from 
calculations actually made, that the Institute has 
itself furnished to the community, more experi- 
mental Teachers and Professors, State Geologists, 
Principal and Assistant Engineers on Public 
Works, and practical Chemists and Naturalists, 
than have been furnished, in the same time, by 
all the Colleges in the Union. If the half of 
this statement be true, the result, in this single 
particular, is a proud one for the memory of 
the Patron, through whose almost unknown mu- 
nificence it has been effected. 

But I pass to one or two other particulars, 
which must be noticed, before I close the history of 
the personal career of the subject of this Memoir. 
He was connected with the institution of Ma- 
sonry, having been initiated as a Mason in 1786, 
when he was twenty-two. In this Association, as 
elsewhere, he was very early placed in official 



84 

station. He first held the post of Junior War- 
den, as I find it called ; then of Senior War- 
den 5 and then of Master. In 1793, he declined 
any further election in the Master's Lodge. In 
1825, an imposing Masonic ceremony was per- 
formed in this city, when he was installed in the 
office of Grand Master, the highest office in Ma- 
sonry. The ceremony of installation was per- 
formed by Gov. Clinton, who was his predecessor 
in the same high office. Both the Past and the 
Elect Grand Master delivered Addresses ; that of 
the former of great length, and full of power, 
ieauty and brilliancy 5 that of the latter, in re- 
ply, was shorter, full of simplicity, mingled with 
sterling good sense, and characterized by his 
usual kindness, benevolence and fraternal affec- 
tion. In 1826, he was re-elected to the same 
ofl[ice j but he declined any further official con- 
nection with Masonry the next year. It is sup 
posed that whatever there was, or is, in Masonry, 
worth knowing, he knew 5 and that he had been 
initiated into some mysteries connected with it, 
which, since the death of Baron Steuben, by 
whom they were communicated, were known to 
a very few others only, in this country. It is 



85 

well known, that no abuses committed in the 
name of this Fraternity, ever received the least 
sanction from him 5 and certainly no man in our 
community thought, or spoke, with more unaffect- 
ed abhorrence of the outrage, which, in 1826, 
was offered by Masons to an American citizen in 
the Western part of this State, than he did. He 
regarded this Institution as formed for practical 
and benevolent uses, and whatever connection he 
had with it, down to the last, was continued prin- 
cipally, as a convenient means of practising those 
secret acts of charity and kindness in which he 
so much delighted. 

In December, 1823, Gen. Van Rensselaer 
took his seat, for the first time, in Congress, as a 
Representative from the City and County of 
Albany. He was continued in his place by re- 
election for three successive terms, and retired on 
the fourth of March, 1829. During his whole 
Congressional service of six years, he held the 
station of Chairman of the Committee on Agri- 
culture. In March, 1824, he made a valuable 
Report to the House, in answer to a Resolution 
of enquiry touching the effect of the Tariff 
Laws on the interests of Agriculture. In Feb- 



86 

ruary, 1825, the imposing ceremony of an elec- 
tion to the Presidency took place in the House 
of Representatives. His vote determined that 
of the Delegation from this State in favor of 
Mr. Adams, and, as it resulted, produced the 
election of that gentlemen on the first ballot. 
Gen. Van Rensselaer never mingled in the 
conflict of debate ; but he was not, for that rea- 
son, the less valuable or influential member. 
His faithfulness, his integrity, his eminent hones- 
ty, his kindness of manner, his ready perception 
of the true and the right in all questions present- 
ed for the action of the House, and his freedom 
from the prejudices and trammels of party, gave 
him a standing and influence in the House, far 
beyond what ever belongs, in such a body, to the 
mere ability, however distinguished, to conduct a 
skillful argument, or pronounce an eloquent ha- 
rangue. The great moral sway which character 
alone, commanding general admiration and re- 
spect, bears in a deliberative Assembly, was never 
more conspicuous, than in the case of Stephen 
Van Rensselaer, in the American House of 
Representatives. 

Our review of this eminent man's life is draw- 



87 

ing to a conclusion 5 and it will occur no doubt to 
many, probably as strange, that as yet, no dis- 
tinct notice has been taken of certain particu- 
lars, by which he was more known and distin- 
guished in the popular estimation, than by any 
thing else — namely — first, his connection with va- 
rious Societies, foreign and domestic, particular- 
ly with those whose objects were benevolent 5 and, 
finally, his private charities. These have not 
been forgotten, but they cannot be enumerated in 
this Discourse. I may mention, in general 
terms, that he was an honorary member of many 
and various learned Associations, at home and 
abroad; some pursuing particular branches of 
science, of arts or learning, and others more com- 
prehensive and general in their objects. He was 
the President of several local Societies designed 
for charitable or religious uses; while of the 
great Institutions of the day, so general as to be 
designated American, and employed to aggregate 
immense numbers, and combine their united 
strength for the prosecution of great Christian 
enterprizes, there was scarcely one, perhaps not 
one, with which he was not, or had not been, con- 



88 

nected by membership, and frequently by the 
highest, always by high official station. 

In regard to his private charities, there are two 
difficulties in the way of any attempt to particu- 
larize them ; one is, that they were private, and 
they are, therefore, to a great extent unknown 5 
and the other is, that, so far as known, they are 
numberless. It would be tedious and difficult to 
enumerate the cases alone, in which he gave by 
hundreds and by thousands. Two of our American 
Colleges received from him, in one subscription, 
five thousand dollars each. It is computed, that he 
expended, through a single agent, in prosecuting 
scientific researches, and for the advancement of 
his educational methods and plans, and for gratu- 
itous instruction, not less than thirty thousand 
dollars. And, taking the cause of learning in its 
various branches, the support and spread of Chris- 
tianity, and the plans of benevolence and mercy, 
as found, each of them, in the hands of voluntary 
Associations, and dependant on individual muni- 
ficence — taking these objects together, I suppose 
it can hardly be doubted that he was the largest 
contributor to them, of pecuniary means, during 
his life time, in the Union. In respect to his 



89 

minor benevolencies, nobody can number or com- 
pute them. They flowed from him in streams 
which were perpetual — never dry, and never scan- 
ty. It was impossible they should fail, so long as 
objects could be found to call them forth — and 
these never fail. There is not, probably, a pro- 
fession, and hardly a department of active life 
amongst us, in which some could not be found — 
few or many — who owe the advantages of their 
position to him 5 while it is nearly certain that he 
fed more that were hungry, warmed more that 
were cold, clothed more that were naked, cover- 
ed more shelterless heads, dried up more bitter 
tears, and comforted more despairing hearts, 
than any other man living among us in his 
time. 

But I pass from these particulars, to the con- 
clusion of this imperfect notice and tribute. The 
last year or two of the life of this eminent citizen 
was marked by disease and severe suffering. For 
several years, indeed, he had been subject to at- 
tacks which indicated that a cruel malady was 
fastening itself upon him, and that his sun was 
destined to set in a troubled sky. His disorder 

M 



90 

finally showed itself fully about eighteen months 
ago, and created, at the time, considerable alarm, 
lest its termination should be speedily fatal. Du- 
ring the whole of the winter before the last, he 
was regarded as scarcely ever free from danger. 
Considerable abatement took place in the Spring, 
and he was able to leave home, for a short time. 
When winter returned, he was again wholly con- 
fined to his house, and much to his own apart- 
ment, enduring more than can be told, with only 
brief intervals of relief, till the day of his depar- 
ture came — when his candle went out, suddenly 
indeed, but not without circumstances of mitiga- 
tion and mercy. As his faithful and honored 
friend and biographer, I must not omit to record, 
that he died, as he had lived, a Christian 5 ex- 
hibiting a patience and resoluteness in his suffer- 
ings, and a calmness and fearlessness with the 
Angel of Death in his presence, which — however 
much others might have supposed there was of 
reliable stuff for such scenes in his natural courage 
and firmness — he himself referred and attribu- 
ted wholly to the efficacy and sufficiency 
of his Christian faith and his Christian prin- 
ciples. 



91 

His own desire had been frequently expressed, 
that when the time came, his body should be borne 
to the common Tomb of his Fathers, with simple 
ceremonies only, and with an entire absence of 
ostentatious parade. This injunction was obeyed 
by his family, as far as the public, and public 
bodies, would consent it should be. It was ar- 
ranged that the religious solemnities of his fune- 
ral should be celebrated at the North Dutch 
Church in this city — his own place of public 
worship — and in the presence of that fellowship 
of Christians belonging there, with which he had 
been connected, as a Member in Communion, for 
more than half a century. From thence to the 
family vault near his late residence, a procession 
was formed. The Body, in its simple and una- 
dorned Coffin, was borne on mens' shoulders — the 
bearers frequently reheving each other — the pall 
supported by those who had known him long and 
loved him well. No hearse was permitted to re- 
ceive the burthen. The mourners followed ; after 
them, the Municipal Authorities of the City 5 
several public Societies ; the Chief Magistrate and 
other Executive Officers of the State 5 and the Le- 



92 

gislature in order 5 and then came citizens and 
strangers, falling in by two and two, until the pro- 
cession was extended to a most unusual and im- 
posing length. All were on foot. No carriages 
were used. The Military were in citizens' dress. 
All badges of office had been laid aside. No plumes 
nodded 5 no helmets glistened 5 no music murmur- 
ed 5 solemn, slow, and silent, the procession moved 
on, through thick and thronging, but orderly and 
respectful ranks, crowding the streets, and lining 
the casements of every dwelling on either side. 
And thus were the remains of the good man carried, 
and deposited in their resting place 5 and thus 
were they attended. None ever had a more sim- 
ple funeral 5 none were ever followed by a larger 
train of sincere and sorrowing mourners. 

Here, then, we part with him. The man dies, 
but his memory and virtues live. I shall not at- 
tempt to give a separate and extended sketch of 
his character. It is found in the sentiments, the 
acts, and the practices of his life, as already de- 
tailed. His mind was of that order which com- 
bines quickly, and reaches conclusions so readily, 
and with such intuitive accuracy, that laborious 



93 

investigation, as the need of it is not soon felt, 
finally becomes irksome, and is seldom or never 
used. It reposes on itself with a confidence which 
experience only confirms, while the processes by 
which it comes to results, are seldom stated to it- 
self, and never to others. His heart was not un- 
like his mind, in its impulsive and intuitive habits; 
it made him a man of mercy and of charity, with- 
out the necessity of any elaborate discipline, or 
any long training. It was his nature to be 
kind and humane. He was tenderly attached to 
his family, where his affections, without making 
an uncommon case of it, might have rested and 
terminated ; yet he saw a friend or a brother in 
every worthy man he met. His benevolence was 
of that large kind which loves an expansive 
range, and is offended at limitations and restraints. 
And his humanity was not satisfied with stopping 
short of cruelty, or with relieving misery, but 
was itself distressed, if, by the most unconscious 
act, pain were inflicted on another, or his sensibil- 
ity wounded. He had the tenderness of a very 
woman, laid side by side in his temperament with 
a manly courage, and an unconcernedness which 



94 • 

made him, if occasion demanded, laugh and mock 
at fear or danger. There was that in him, too, 
which made his spirit always self-poised and con- 
servative. He was temperate in all things 5 in 
his personal indulgencies ; in his personal predi- 
lections or prejudices 5 in his party attachments 
or aversions 5 in his new opinions or feelings, 
whenever he acquired them 5 in his love of the 
world 5 and in his religious faith and practice. 
And, to sum up all, there was in him, with a 
reasonable facility for changing with the times, 
a steadfastness of character and purpose — but 
no unimpressibility — derived, perhaps, by in- 
heritance from his nation, but so mingled in 
him with other elements, as to belong essen- 
tially and individually to himself. But I for- 
bear. 

The best part of a good man's life is his ex- 
ample. Him we may meet no more j but this 
we may meet at every turn. This is immor- 
tal, and cannot die. It lives in memory • lives 
in tradition 5 lives in history. It is present 
with us, and will be present with those who 
come after us — to teach, to instruct, to influ- 



95 

ence, and to guide. It is a light which never 
goes out, and never grows dim. And, for my 
part, I know not what we, or the world, 
ought to thank God for devoutly, if not, that a 
good man has lived, and, dying, has left us 
the legacy of his example and his virtues. 



APPENDIX. 

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 

OF THE COLONY AND MANOR 

Of 

READ BEFOKE 

TSIE AI^BAIVir INSTITUTE, 
APRIL 25, 1839. 



BY D. D. BARNARD, 

Member of the Institute. 



SKETCH, &c. 



At the period when the settlement of the North 
American Colonies was begun, the Dutch were, by far, 
the most Commercial people in Europe. The Republic 
of Holland boasted of twenty thousand vessels, and more 
than two hundred thousand mariners. A bloody war, 
waged for National Independence, through a long series 
of years, seemed to have had no other effect than to mul- 
tiply their numbers, and turn rivers of wealth to flow into 
the lap of the Nation. Liberty, too, was a great gainer ; 
and Civilization marched forward by rapid strides, and 
with manly vigor, under the lead of Commerce. The 
City of Amsterdam took the lead of all others in the 
Netherlands. In population, in wealth, and in political 
power, she was pre-eminent. The affairs of the Nation 
were conducted, and wars were prosecuted, expressly in a 
manner to favor and promote the operations of trade ; and 
much of the political authority, directly or indirectly, was 



ICO 

in the hands of the Municipalities where the Merchants 
bore sway. 

In the first years of the Seventeenth Century, the Mer- 
chants of Holland, like those of every other country' in 
Europe, still worshipped with their regards turned to- 
wards the East. In 1602, the Dutch East India Compa- 
ny was established — one of those extraordinary organi- 
zations of the period, embracing half a world in its ex- 
clusive commercial grasp, and clothed, at the same time, 
with unlimited and independent powers for conquest and 
for government. It was while engaged in the service of 
this Company, that Hudson, after another unsuccessful 
attempt to find his way to Southern Asia, through the 
ice-bound Seas of the North, ran down the American 
Coast, and, finally, entered and explored our own noble 
River, which still bears his name. This was in 1G09. 
The Dutch claimed no other territorial rights, in new 
countries, as the consequence of Discovery, than such as 
they might secure by actual possession, taken in reasona- 
ble time. For several successive years after the Discove- 
ry, the country on the Hudson was visited by the trading 
ships of various Merchants of Amsterdam. In 1614, 
the Slates General passed an Edict, which excluded, 
for four years, from the trade on this River, all competi- 
tion with those under whom the Discovery had been 
made, from such time as the latter might see fit to enter 
upon and monopolize it. It was under this Edict, that an 
unincorporated Trading Company, made up, probably^ 



101 

in whole or in part, from Members of the East India 
Company, sent out a trading adventure, which found a 
position for itself, in the fall of that year, on the upper 
part of Castle Island, the first below this city, and known 
to us as Van Rensselaer's, or the Patroon's Island^ and 
where a rude fortification was then erected.* 

This establishment was purely Commercial, looking al- 
most solely to the trade in peltries, with so much of mili- 
tary power incorporated with it, as might serve for pro- 
tection, in its outcast lodgement in the deep of a savage 
wilderness. Its presence here, as the pioneer of Coloni- 
zation, was fortunate and salutary. From the first, it 
conciliated the favor and friendship of the Mohawks, and 
with them, the warlike and conquering Confederacy of 
Indians, known as the Five Nations ; and, within three 
years, its managers succeeded in concluding a solemn 
and formal Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with the 
Confederacy, which stood the parties concerned, and their 
successors, for long years to come, in much belter stead, 
than their fortification, " with two brass pieces, eleven 
stone guns, and a dozen soldiers," would have been like- 
ly to do under other circumstances. This Treaty was 
concluded at the Fort of the Traders, which was situated 

* Mr. Bancroft, in his admirable History of the United States, insists that 
this trading settlement was rot made until 1615; and he claims, in his 
Notes, that this fact is proved by the Albany Records. I think ho is mis- 
taken. The proof to which he refers is too indefinite and uncertain, to con- 
trol the direct testimony in the case. 1 Banc. Hist. 272-3. 



102 

on the banks of the Norman's Kill, a short distance south 
of the position originally assumed, and from which they 
had been driven by the floods.* 

But as yet, it will be observed, there was no Dutch 
Colony here. There were only the Commercial Agents 
of a Trading Association. Not a family, or a female, 
had yet e migrated. f There had been no formal appro- 
priation of any portion of the soil, except for present 
or temporary use ; no purchase of land had been made ; 
and the public Authorities at home had, as yet, advanced 
no claim to the Territory. But the way to Colonization 
was about to be opened. With objects on the part of 
the Government, having little to do, immediately, with the 
settlement and reclaiming of a new and savage world, a 
great National Society was instituted by the States 
General, under the name of the Dutch West India Com- 
pany, which possessed the most extraordinary privileges, 
and was clothed with the most extraordinary powers. 
This was in 1621. It was invested with the exclusive 
right "to traffic and plant Colonies on the Coast of 
Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good 
Hope ; and on the Coast of America, from the Straits of 
Magellan to the remotest North." It was to be an armed 
Association from the start, and especially, it was expect- 



• Vide Moulton's Hist. N. Y. Part. ii. p. 346. 

t The first child of European parentage, born in New Netherland, had its 
birth in 1625. Moult. Part. ii. p. 371. 



103 

ed to set out with a powerful Marine. The enemies of 
the Republic were to be its enemies. And whenever it 
should go to war on its own account, as it had the pre- 
rogative of doing, its enemies were to be also the ene- 
mies of the Republic. The States General were to be 
its allies. With more than half a hemisphere of land 
and water for its operations, it was to carry its arms and 
its merchandize — to traffic and to conquer — wherever it 
might be found profitable and practicable to do so. 
Wherever its standard might be planted, there the abso- 
lute right of government in the Company attached, with 
only this condition, that every thing must be done to the 
satisfaction of the high Authorities from which its power 
was derived. The central power of the Company was 
divided, for the more efficient exercise, among five 
Branches, established in the diflferent cities of the Nether- 
lands. Of these, that at Amsterdam was the chief, and 
had charge of the aflfairs of New Netherland. The gene- 
ral supervision and government of the affairs of the Com- 
pany, however, was lodged in a College, or Congress, of 
Nineteen Delegates. These Deputies, and the Managers 
of the Five Chambers, were stiled the Lord's Directors, 
and they wielded a commercial and political authority, 
of the first magnitude. The home of their power was 
to be both on the water and on the land. They com- 
menced their operations in 1623, and at once they swept 
the Ocean with their fleets, and made their descent on the 
shores of two Continents, wherever they could spoil or 



104 

annoy an enemy, or secure profits to themselves. 
Spain, the ancient enemy and oppressor of their country, 
was made to feel the weight of the right arm of their 
power ; and Piracy, which, at this juncture, was well 
nigh having the common command of the Ocean, was 
met every where, and beaten into submission and good 
behavior. 

With objects like these to occupy the attention of the 
Directors, it is not surprising that the Colonization of a 
new country — the planting of a Christian population in a 
heathen and wilderness land, with a view to making it, 
in time, the abode of civilization and refinement — should 
not at first have given them much concern. They did in- 
deed prepare, at once, to take possession of the country on 
the North River ; for in the very first year of their full or- 
ganization — in 1623 — they set up the ensigns of their 
authority here in two fortifications. Fort New Amster- 
dam, occupied a position near the confluence of the North 
and East Rivers ; and Fort Orange was planted near the 
head of navigation, on the alluvial ground now occupied 
by the business part of the City of Albany.* But even 
yet, and for some years after, these were the mere trading 
stations of the Company. Fort Orange was a walled and 
armed Custom-House, into which was made to flow a 
commerce in peltries, drawn from a country extending 



• The site was that on which stands the building lately known as the 
Fort Orange Hotel — formerly the mansion of the late Simeon De Witt. 



105 

to Quebec, and bounded thence by the course of the 
waters inland to Niagara and the Lake above it ; while 
New Amsterdam was the Head Quarters of the 
local government, vested in an Upper and an Under Mer- 
chant, or Commissary,* and the place of rendezvous for 
the ships and coasters of the Company. 

1 have entered into this little detail of history, in order 
to shew the more clearly how, and under what auspices, 
Colonization was in fact commenced, and where the 
credit of it ought to attach. De Heer Killian Van Rens- 
selaer, as he was called, and who became the first Patroon 
of Rensselaerwick, was a Director of the Dutch West 
India Company at Amsterdam, and, as described in some 
old Manuscripts, a chief partner. In 1625, De Laet, 
also a Director, and afterwards associated with Van 
Rensselaer in eflxjrts to plant a Colony, published a book 
on the New World, which had distinctly for its object to 
recommend Colonization to the attention of his country- 
men. Attention was aroused, but no movement was ef- 
fected for four years. In 1629, a change was produced 
in the Constitution of the Central Government, so far as 
to allow the appointment of Nine Commissioners at Am- 
sterdam, for the government of the affairs of New 
Netherland. Of this Commission, Van Rensselaer was 
one ; and it is fair to infer, from his position and wealth, 
as well as from subsequent events, that he had already 

* Opper Koopman and Onder Koopman— or Commis. 
O 



106 

conceived strongly the idea and intention of planting a 
Colony in America, and hence that he had a principal 
share, by his influence and exertions, in bringing about 
that event which first, and shortly after, led to Colo- 
nization in this quarter, under the Company. This was 
the adoption, in the same year — 1629 — by the College 
of XIX, of a liberal Charter of Privileges for Patroons 
planting Colonies in New Netherland.* Van Rensselaer 
lost no time in preparing to avail himself of the terms of 
this Charter. The very first purchase of land made 
by the Dutch, for a regular Colony, within this State, 
so far as I have been able to discover, was made for Kil- 
lian Van Rensselaer. The land lay near Fort Orange, 
but below it, and, having its extent on the River defined,^ 
was to run " two days journey in landwards ;" and the 
purchase was made, on the 8th day of April, 1630, of 
four Indian owners, or Chiefs, at Fort Orange, in the 
presence and by the agency of Gov. Minuit himself, then 
holding the chief authority,! and with payments in mer- 



* Vide Charter at length, in Moulton's New York — Partii. p. 389. 

t Wouter Van Twiller, afterwards Governor, was then here, sent out 
under the orders of the Nine Commissioners of Amsterdam, probably with a 
view to further the designs of some of them in regard to Colonization, but 
not yet, it would seem, in command, since it is certain that he bore no super- 
sedeas to Minuit. Van Twiller returned to Holland, and came back again 
in an armed ship, and with some state, to take possession of the Government 
in 1633. 

Moult. Hist. Part ii. p. 419— also vide lb. p. 400. 



107 

chandize to the full satisfaction of the native lords of the 
soil.* Other purchases, from various owners, were soon 
after made for the same proprietor — one the same year, 
and the last in 1637 — which, all together, made up the 
full complement of Territory, constituting, finally, the 
Colony of Rensselaerwyck. These acquisitions were 
confirmed to the purchaser shortly after they were seve- 
rally made, by the public authorities at Fort Am- 
sterdam. 

The way was now prepared, and Van Rensselaer, 
very promptly, after the first purchases had been made 
for him, in 1630, sent out his Colonists to occupy the 
ground. The condition of the Charter to Patroons re- 
quired, that every Colony of a Patroon, within four years, 
should consist of fifty persons, and none under fifteen 
years of age, and that one fourth part of these should be 
planted within the first year. There can be little doubt 
that this requisition was complied with in Rensselaer- 
wyck. Nor did this satisfy the Proprietor. He was 
shrewd and careful enough to take advantage of a clause 
in the Charter — inserted there, as would seem from subse- 
quent events, with scarcely a belief that the provision 
could possibly be available to any body — which offered to 
any Patroon who would settle a larger number of per- 
sons than fifty in his Colony, liberty to extend his pur- 
chases and possessions proportionably beyond the limits 

* Book of Patents Translated — Sec. of State's Office — ^p. 6. 



108 

originally prescribed in the Charter.* These prescribed 
limits, were a stretch of eight English miles on a 
Navigable River, with land running back into the 
country on either side.f The Patroon of Rensselaer- 
wyck provided himself with a Territory for his Colo- 
ny, extending twenty-four miles on the River, and em- 
bracing the land on either shore, and obliging himself, 
therefore, according to the terms of the Charter, to begin 
his little Empire in the West, with a subject population 
of one hundred and fifty adult souls, besides the usual 
complement of children. 

The Colony of Rensselaerwyck, planted under the di- 
rection and at the sole expense of the Patroon, was the 
first successful Colony, planted expressly as such by the 
Dutch, in America. The first settlement of this State 
by a body of emigrants from the Netherlands, forming a 
regular Colonial establishment, under the provisions of 
the Company's Charter, was at Albany. But this was 
not the only effort to promote and effect Colonization in 



* The heavy expense of planting a Colony, at that time, may be judged of, 
in some measure perhaps, by a single example. I have found the record of 
an account presented by Gov. Van Twiller to Sir Killian Van Rensselaer (as 
Van Derkemp has it,) in August 1638, for the fare and transportation of two 
families only in the Company's ships, the whole of which account amounted 
to £1,413 12. Cunency ! I cannot help suspecting that there must have 
been something besides fare in this account. — 1 Alb. Records — Trans. 

t Or sixteen miles on such River, with land on one side of the River 
only. 



109 

America, made by the enterprising and sagacious Van 
Rensselaer. One of his associates in the Direction of 
the West India Company, and a fellow Commissioner, 
had caused a tract to be secured to him, by purchase 
from the Indian Owners, lying on the Delaware, then 
within the ample boundaries of New Netherland. It 
would seem that Godyn, the purchaser, felt himself alone 
unequal to the burthen of planting a Colony there ; and 
an Association was formed for the purpose, consisting of 
several Directors, of whom Killian Van Rensselaer was 
one. In the fall of 1630, they fitted out an expedition, 
under De Vries, a skilful conductor, and set down on the 
Delaware a Colony of thirty souls. This Colony was 
unfortunate. Within two years, every soul had perished 
by the weapons of the Savages, in revenge of an unpro- 
voked and wanton injury. But calamitous as the result 
was to the settlers, the attempt was not without its value, 
and it led to important consequences. This wa^the fiist 
settlement in Delaware, and was earlier than any in Penn- 
sylvania or New Jersey ; and it is due to Killian Van 
Rensselaer and his associates in fitting out this Colonizing 
expedition, that Delaware exists, at this day, as an Inde- 
pendent State.* 

* About a quarter of a century after the first purchase had been made for 
Van Rensselaer, at Fort Orange, a claim was set up by Godyn, De Laet and 
others, or their descendants, to a partnership interest in the Colony of Rens- 
selaerwyck. The claim was presented by Petition, before the Lords Direc- 
tors of the Company at Amsterdam, and, by them, was referred to the Di= 



110 

Colonization was now fairly commenced at and around 
Fort Orange, on the shores of the noble Hudson ; and 
about 1637, the Patroon of this Colony appeared in per- 
son to take charge of his Estate and his People. The 
full history of the Colony of Rensselaerwick would not 
only be interesting, but would contribute, not a little, to- 
wards pouring a full and steady light on the condition 
and circumstances of the Province of New- York, in the 
period of its birth and early years. On this occasion, 
however, I can only recall its prominent features. 

The United Provinces of Holland, it must be remem- 
bered, never themselves undertook Colonization any 
where. They encouraged it, but they would not put 
their own hand to the work ; and the mode in which en- 
couragement was given in the case before us, shewed 
clearly the intention of transferring to America the feudal 
and aristocratical institutions of ths Father land. The 
old Ari^itocracy, however, content with the power and 
the consideration it enjoyed at home, was not to 
be transplanted ; but the New World was to have 
a new Aristocracy, formed out of the best materials 

rector General and Council at New Amsterdam. The demand was not al- 
lowed. It rested in written Articles of Agreement, which were produced, 
and bore date Oct. 16, 1630. They had reference, no doubt, to the Dela- 
ware Colony ; and the attempt to make them apply to the Colony of Rens- 
selaerwyck, probably grew, honestly enough, out of the vagueness of ideas 
with which every thing belonging to territorial matters in the New World was 
Viewed at this period. 



Ill 

that could be spared from the old. The Prince would 
not come here, and, as a general thing, the old no- 
bles would not come ; but out of that new and en- 
terprising class which Commerce had formed, and by the 
forming of which liberty had been greatly a gainer, a 
feudal and landed Aristocracy was to be created for the 
uses of the rising world of New Netherland. 

In the Charter of the West India Company, it was 
made the duty of the Lords Directors to provide, in some 
form, for the settlement, in time, of the Countries of 
which they should possess themselves ; while yet the 
Stations of the Company every where were to be govern- 
ed by their own high officers, witii military and brief au- 
thority, and Commerce, and the spoil of the national ene- 
my, were evidently the chief consideration. When, how- 
ever, the College of XIX came to look after the subject 
of Colonization, they adopted, very natural]}^ a system 
in perfect harmony with the political complexion of the 
Government at home. In the Charter of Privileges framed 
by them, they held out inducements to Particular Persons 
and Masters, as they were there called, as well as to Pa- 
troons. But, though Holland was a Republic, and fit, 
therefore, to be the Mother of a Republic ; though by her 
Federal Union of Provinces she was about to offer to 
America a most valuable precedent for the guaranty of 
National Liberty ; though by her toleration and her steady 
good sense, her soil was now the Asylum of the oppres- 
ed for religious opinions, of all nations; and though, on 



112 

the whole, Freedom in the Netherlands, instructed in 
long wars for Independence, was greatly superior to any 
thing of the sort among her neighbors ; yet popular liber- 
ty was, as yet, but little advanced in Holland. Citizens 
and artizans had begun to look up, for personal wealth 
and personal worth were beginning to be appreciated ; 
and Municipal office, and even the Aristocratic station of 
Burgomaster, were not wholly beyond their line of vision. 
But, then, the tillers of the soil — the boors of the farms 
and the fields — knew little of Freedom — they had hardly 
yet heard so much as a note from her trumpet. They 
knew what protection was, and what kindness was; but 
they had none of that consciousness of being free, and 
feeling power, which alone could prompt them to desire 
a change of place as likely to lead to the bettering of 
their condition and prospects. Voluntary emigration, 
therefore, was not to be expected from them. They had 
no religious persecution to fly from, as other American 
Colonists had, and indeed few, if any, persecutions of 
any sort, and they had not begun yet to hanker after a 
share in politics. It is evident enough, therefore, that 
the hopes of Colonizing their possessions in America, rest- 
ed, almost wholly, on the Patroons, and to them they 
offered the inducements proper to make them contem- 
plate with favor the idea of changing their country. The 
feudal Lordships of Europe — those Baronial possessions 
and establishments which abounded on the Continent and 
in England, and which were not unknown in Holland — 



113 

enjoying more or less independence, and having more or 
]ess of the prerogatives of sovereignty — these offered 
the example of establishments for the North American 
Province of the Dutch. The model was proposed, and 
we have seen that Killian Van Rensselaer was prompt to 
act upon the suggestion. 

Wliat, then, was the political Constitution of the Colo- 
ny of Rensselaerwyck ? And what was the power and 
authority of the Lord of this Colony ? Doubtless some 
modification took place, from the originals, to suit the 
circumstances of its condition in a distant and barbarous 
country. Holland had thrown off the oppressions of 
bigotry and absolutism ; and liberty there consisted in 
preserving the Commercial Aristocracy of the Munici- 
palities, and the feudal immunities of the landed interest, 
against any tendencies to Executive encroachments on 
the part of their own chosen Stadtholder. This was the 
sort of liberty to be planted here ; the same general sys- 
tem was to prevail here, as soon as time and events 
should ripen the country for it ; with this difference of 
course, that besides the fealty due from the Cities, and the 
Colonies of Patroons, to the Central Authorities in the 
Province, all, and the Province itself, were to owe a 
genera] allegiance and subjection to the States General 
in Holland. Colonies of Patroons were an important fea- 
ture in this system; and of these Colonies, that of 
Rensselaerwyck was the most notable and important. 

The Colony, of course, had its foundation in the Char- 



114 

ter of Privileges ; but the full powers of the Patroon can 
only be understood by reference to the analagous powers 
of feudal dignitaries. The design was to give him, or 
rather to leave him, as much authority as would enable him 
to protect and govern his people, and protect and defend 
himself and his possessions, as well against foreign ag- 
gression, as against domestic revolt. His position, in the 
midst of a wilderness, pressed closely on every side by 
rude, warlike and powerful tribes, was not altogether un- 
like that of the feudal Lord in his solitary castle, hemmed in 
with hereditary, and revengeful foes ; and we have abun- 
dant evidence to shew that, in construing their own au- 
thority, the Patroons of this Colony, and those who act- 
ed for them, regarded their powers for military defences 
and operations, as fully equal to the exigencies of their 
condition and times. At first, indeed, and in the feeble- 
ness of his young Colony, the Patroon borrowed a prin- 
cipal means of defence against violence from without, 
from the Military Station still held by the West India 
Company, in the midst of his possessions. His first Tra- 
ding, or Custom House, with some other tenantries, were 
placed, for this purpose, under cover of the stone guns and 
other pieces which defended the walls of Fort Orange.* 
The first residence of tlie Patroon himself — which was 



7 Alb. Records, p. 197, 



115 

on the upper end of the Patroon's Island* — was not too far 
off, perhaps, to have been within the range of protection 
afforded by the Company's Cannon. Bit this means of 
defence, was not long, if it ever was, exclusively relied 
upon. We find the Patroon himself possessed of the mu- 
nitions of war, and having Forts of his own, planted 
with cannon. We find him at an early period fortifying 
an Island in the River, and claiming so much of the re- 
gal power, which seems to belong to the independent pos- 
session of such warlike instruments and defences, that 
his Commander there, does not hesitate to fire into a Dutch 
vessel which presumes to pass without lowering her 
colors as an act of homage to Rensselaerstcin. We 
find him receiving, at various times, large quantities of 
powder and ball : his own dwelling is pallisaded, forti- 
fied, and manned ; and, finally, he is able to lend three of 
his own cannon to the Company's Commander at Fort 
Orange, and three more he causes to be mounted on the 
walls of the Church, and he constructs and garrisons an 
independent Fortress as an outpost in the woods. Hap- 
pily, this Colony, by a prudent and humane policy from 
the beginning, escaped the calamities which befel so 
many others in the country, by the hostile incursions of 
the Indians. They had no known and public enemy 
among the Savages near them, except those residing at 



* This appears from an ancient Map in the possession of the family. 



116 

Esopus; and no occasion arose for actual hostilities. 
These Esopus Indians, however, were warlike and im- 
placable ; and threw the Colony often times into great 
alarm. They contrived, at one time, by stratagem, to 
carry off several prisoners, and among them the fair 
daughter of the Company's Chief Officer at Fort Orange ; 
and it was not until a few months before the surrender of 
the Province to the English, that they succeeded in con- 
cluding a firm peace with these troublesome neighbors. 
But the right which the Patroons claimed to engage, for 
the sake of defence, in warlike operations, if need should 
be, and the state of warlike preparation which they found 
it convenient to provide and display, all together created, 
at times — certainly without any sufficient foundation — a 
feeling of distrust and uneasiness on the part of the Cen- 
tral Government of the Province, and of the Authorities 
at home, lest the Colony of Rensselaerwyck should some 
day yield to temptation, and, setting up for itself, should 
be wholly lost to the parent country. The Chamber of 
Directors at Amsterdam made formal complaints against 
the Patroon, an J the Directors of his Colony for the time 
being, amongst other things, that their territorial limits 
had been quite too much extended ; that they had mani- 
fested a design to monopolize the whole trade of the 
North River — a design, indeed, openly avowed, as they 
alleged, by the Gov. Wouter Van Twiller ; who, since 
he had been recalled from the Government of the Pro- 
vince, had become the Guardian of the Patroon of the 



117 

time, in his non-age, and, though in Holland, was the 
principal agent and director of the affairs of the Colony — 
that they had actually set up a claim to " staple-right," 
and were prepared to enforce it by a fortification at 
Rensselaerstein* — and, finally, that the oath of fealty 
and allegiance, exacted of the Colonists, to the Patroons, 
savored of independence, and even sedition, inasmuch as 
no notice whatever was taken in the oath, of their High 
Mightinesses, the States General, as the ultimate Supe- 
riors of the Colony and its Patroons. They deprecated 
the occurrsnce of a war between the Dutch and the 
English Colonists in America — a serious difference hav- 
ing already set in — lest, by some means, in the progress 
of the the war, Rensselaerwyck should be separated from 
their dominions. 

In all this, it is evident, I think, from a cursory view 
of the records of the controversy almost constantly going 
on between the Directors of the Colony and those of New 
Netherland, that the Corporation took council chiefly 
of its fears. There was undoubtedly, a disposition at 
times, if not to enlarge the jurisdiction and powers of the 
Colony, at least to use all that belonged to it ; but the 
truth really is, that the Company, having early discovered 

* " Staple-Right" is defined to be a privilege granted by the Sovereign to 
the inhabitants of a certain place to compel Masters of Vessels, trading along 
their Coasts, to discharge their cargo there for sale, or on failure thereof, to 
pay certain duties. 

Van der Linden's Institutes of the Laws of Holland — p. 538, 



118 

that the legitimate advantages and importance of the 
Colony, under the efficient direction and energy of Kil- 
han Van Rensselaer, were greater than was quite con- 
sistent with all the monopoly and profits, all the while in- 
tended to have been secured to the Corporation, sought 
every favorable occasion afterwards to interpose, and in- 
terfere injuriously with its unquestionable rights and in- 
terests. We shall see abundant proofs of this as our nar- 
rative proceeds. 

But the power of the Patroons for the defence of their 
Colony by military array, was not more remarkable than 
that which they possessed in regard to its police and 
government. The Charter, so often referred to, express- 
ly clothed them with the High and Low Jurisdiction of 
the Feudal Law. This gave to the Patroons the origi- 
nal and absolute right to administer, in person, or by 
functionaries of their own appointment, the whole justice 
of the Colony, in both branches of Jurisprudence. The 
decision of all causes, civil and criminal, belonged in the 
first instance to them, in the Courts of the Colony. They 
had the right of trying crimes of every kind, even the 
highest, and those punishable by the loss of life or limb, 
as well as those inferior and petty oflfences which, on 
conviction, were followed by fine and imprisonment. 
Originally, where feudal Jurisprudence prevailed, the 
sentences of the Baronial Courts were final, and no ap- 
peal lay to any Superior Court. But, before the time we 
speak of, the eflforts of Sovereigns every where had been 



119 

directed to the correction of this dangerous concession to 
the Barons, and appeals, at least in cases affecting limb or 
life, were generally allowed. It is supposed, that to that ex- 
tent, and strictly to that extent only, could appeals be taken 
to the decisions and judgments pronounced in the criminal 
courts of the Patroons. Indeed, in these cases, if any 
such occurred, a review of the proceedings was probably 
a matter of course, before execution of the sentence 
could be had, and whether the party implicated chose to 
enter an appeal or not. In regard to the lesser offences 
and misdemeanors, the Jurisdiction of the Patroons seems 
to have been complete and final. And so it would have 
been in all civil suits, according to the feudal law ; but 
the Charter provided expressly for an appeal to the Com- 
pany's Commander and Council in New Netherland, 
from all judgments, by the Courts of the Patroons, for up- 
wards of fifty guilders— a little less than tvventy-one 
Dollars.* 

Such was the jurisdiction of the Patroons of this Colo- 
ny. Justice, in both branches, was administered in their 
name, and by their authority. They appointed all the 
officers of Justice in the Colony— as well as their Com- 
mercial officials, and their Military Commanders. The 
Sheriff and the Secretary of the Colony— Officers hav- 
ing more to do with the prosecution of suits and com- 
plaints and the trial of causes, than those titles in our 



Just $20 83 1-2. 



120 

system would indicate — were put in Commission by 
them.* They did not, so far as I have discovered, dele- 
gate the Judicial power which belonged to them, or to 
the Chief Director of the Colony for the time, any far- 
ther than that power was committed to the Sheriff and 
Secretary. In imitation of the policy and practice of 
the old Barons, of Princes of inferior rank, and even of 
the highest Sovereigns in the early part of the Middle 
Ages, they presided in their own tribunals, in cases of 
importance or delicacy, and dispensed the justice of the 
Colony in person. Regularly, the due administration of 
justice would have required the Patroons to have their 
Colonial prison, for the incarceration of such oifenders 
as should be condemned to th;it punishment. But a sepa- 
rate prison of their own was not indispensable. A Jail 
was constructed in Fort Orange — probably by arrange- 
ment between the Colony and the Company ; certain it 
is, it was used for their mutual accommodation. To it 
the Sheriff of Rensselaerwyck committed his prisoners. 
In the Courts of the Colony, all causes and disputes be- 
tween the freeholders and inhabitants of the Territory 
were triable — all questions about titles to lands, about 

* Shortly before the Surrender to the English, the Directors at Amsterdam 
set up a claim to create a Sheriff for Rensselaerwick; and they instructed 
Gov. Stuyvesant — not to appoint a new Sheriff— but to re-appoint Sheriff 
Swart, already in Commission under the Patroon, and induce him to consent 
to receive a Commission from the Company ! — Letter of 25. Ap. 1659 — 4 
Alb. Records p. 301. 



121 

possessions or boundaries, about contracts, and about 
injuries to property, persons or character. And here also, 
the Palroons brought suits, or might have done so, against 
the tenants and freeholders of the Colony, for the quit- 
rents and other demands due to them — a jurisdiction and 
right certainly calling for great moderation and forbear- 
ance on the part of the Patroons and their Officials, to 
prevent the abuses and oppressions to vehich so partial a 
tribunal v^^ould be likely to tend. 

The brief view now taken of the Constitution and poli- 
ty of the Colony, may be enough to give us a general 
impression, and not perhaps an unjust one, of the politi- 
cal condition of the Colonists under the power and gov- 
ernment of the Patroons. The relations between the 
two did not certainly leave to the Colonists that freedom, 
and give them that security, which men enjoy under popu- 
lar institutions. But it must not be inferred that their 
condition was one in which they suffered oppression or 
injustice. It is true, that they were vassals — not, how- 
ever, in the sense in which that word is often under- 
stood. They were bound, by a solemn oath, to bear true 
faith and fealty to the Lord and Governor of the Colony. 
They were his immediate subjects, and bound to a lawful 
obedience. But their Superior was himself a vassal — 
to those high Authorities from whom he derived his right 
and his power; he was himself a subject, and his people 
were not only his subjects, but they were the subjects 
also of the same Sovereign to whom his own allegiance 



122 

was due. There appears to have been, from the papers 
I have examhied, and I have no doubt there was, as a 
general thing, a relation of kindness and mutual attach- 
ment subsisting between them and him. He was what 
his title indicated he would be, their Patron— their pro- 
tector and friend. He promulgated to them just laws 
enough, and exercised just authority enough, to compel 
them, wherever they might be otherwise disposed, to be 
orderly and peaceable, and observe the obligations of 
honesty and right, towards him, and towards one an- 
other. For the rest, his government was paternal. It 
was exercised in composing disputes and differences, in 
bestowing friendly counsel, and, through the natural in- 
fluence of his position and character, reconciling enmi- 
ties and healing feuds. The care of their defence and 
protection, in their exposed situation, rested with him. 
He had the means of such defence, which they had not ; 
and, having both their gratitude and their confidence, 
they were proud to be his soldiers, as well as his sub- 
jects, and were ready, at any time, to fight with him, or 
to fio-ht for him, as he should direct and command. They 
enjoyed, it must be remembered, feudal Hberty — a liber- 
ty by no means to be despised, at that time of day. It 
was one of the best forms of liberty, which, at that day, 
the world had to offer. The feudal system came origi- 
nally, as a relief to men from the burthens and oppres- 
sions of worse systems which it displaced ; and though 
it was itself made subsequently the instrument of grind- 



123 

ing exactions, and of every species of petty tyranny, sd 
that the people were glad to fly to their Sovereigns, and 
to absolute governments, for protection, yet before the 
period we speak of, the system, what remained of it, and 
in its modified forms, had become one which favored 
freedom, and was not without its guaranties for security 
and personal independence. There was a single feature 
in it of no inconsiderable importance and value, and 
which belonged to it as applied to this Colony as well as 
elsewhere — whether there was ever occasion to use it or 
not. The freeholders of the Colony — as many of those 
holding lands from the Patroons were — were as much, 
and as essentially, members of the Criminal Courts of the 
Colony, as was the Patroon himself, whenever tri- 
als were to be held for any of the higher class of 
offences. They were themselves the triers of the offend- 
ers, and no man could be convicted for a capital, or 
high crime, without the verdict of a competent number 
of his peers. 

I have not found, in my researches, nor do I believe, 
that there was any thing seriously to complain of in the 
conduct of the administration of the Colony — especially 
while it was in the hands of the Patroons themselves, or 
of any of the family. During the non-age of a Patroon, 
which, by the law of Holland, extended, I think, to 
twenty-five years, I find the Colony in possession and un- 
der the Command and Directorship of one Brandt \^an 
Slecktenhoorst, who certainly did seem disposed, in some 



124 

things, to carry matters with a high hand. He is accused 
by the Director General and Council at Manhattan, of 
making his judicial decisions absolute and final in all 
cases, and compelling the inhabitants to forego the use of 
their undoubted right of appeal. I have not found, how- 
ever, any evidence that any such complaint ever emana- 
ted from the inhabitants themselves ; and it is only sheer 
justice to the memory of the worthy Commander, to say 
that in my judgment, his accusers in this case, ought not 
to be his judges. His zeal, no doubt at times intempe- 
rate, for the honor and interests of his Orphan Patroon — 
as he repeatedly styles him— and for the Colony, and his 
resolute determination that no rights should be lost for 
non-user during his administration, led him into sharp col- 
lision with the Authorities of the India Company, and, 
finally, into very serious troubles. But 1 have seen no 
evidence to show that he practised, or attempted — as he 
was accused — any imitation of those Barons of France, 
of whom history records that they put to death, or muti- 
lated, such persons as presumed to appeal from the sen- 
tences of their courts ; nor indeed, that he ventured on 
any other, and less atrocious, means of securing such an 
object. 

The truth, I think, is that the India Company, on ma- 
ture deliberation, were not quite satisfied with the work 
of their own hands, and they manifested too much disposi- 
tion to reclaim, or at least to limit and restrain, by unfair 
proceedings, some of those large powers and privileges 



125 

which they had at first so freely bestowed.* The Direc- 
tor Van Rensselaer, shrewd, sagacious, and far-seeing, 
had undoubtedly possessed himself of eminent advan- 
tages at Rensselaerwyck. The point where he took his 
station was, at the beginning, the chief Mart of the Fur 
trade in the Province, and so it must long continue to be ; 
and until the purchase and settlement made by the Pa- 
troon, this Mart, and the trade there, were in the hands 
of the Company, and protected by the Armament at 
Fort Orange. The Company, moreover, in their Charter 
to Patroons, while they granted to them the free liberty 
of traffic, with their Coasters, *' from Florida to Terra 
Neuf," and even a share in the Cod Fishery, had been 
careful to reserve to themselves an exclusive right, every 
where, to the trade in peltries — but with this exception, 
that the Patroons might enjoy that trade also, on certain 
specified terms, at those points and places where the 
Company might not maintain a trading establishment. 
Under this stipulation in the Charter, the Fur trade at 
this important point fell eventually into the hands of the 
Proprietor of the Colony — for, after a few years, the Com- 
pany, engrossed I suppose with other matters, ceased to 

* In a Letter from the Directors in Holland to the Governor of the Pro- 
vince, dated March, 1657, manifesting throughout great jealousy of the 
power of the Patroon, they say, speaking of the Authority exercised in this 
Colony — " this example makes us averse to permit any one in future such an 
unlimited Colonization and Jurisdiction." 

4 Alb. Records, p. 50- 



126 

supply their Trading House in Fort Orange with the ne- 
cessary articles of Merchandize with which to carry on 
the traffic with the Indians. Not only was the derelict 
trade promptly seized and engrossed by the Patroon — 
being then, 1644, the original Killian Van Rensselaer — 
but measures were immediately taken to secure it, if need 
be, by force of arms, against all impertinent intermed- 
dling with it. This was the purpose with which Bearen 
Island was fortified, and a garrison placed there. The 
Company's own vessels might still have free access to 
Fort Orange ; to them the navigation of the River was 
open as ever — but not so the vessels of independent tra- 
ders. These could, of course, find no port to enter or 
traffic in above Bearen Island, except within the limits of 
Rensselaerwyck, and every independent trader would 
learn the terms on which the port of the Colony might 
be entered, on making a respectful inquiry at the Fortress 
of Rensselaerstein. 

This proceeding was viewed with exceeding jealousy 
and distrust, by the Director General of New Amsterdam ; 
but it was persisted in, in spite of the strongest remon- 
strances ; and when, by the death of the Proprietor, the 
administration and care of the Colony, in behalf of his 
Heir, devolved on the Commander Van Slecktenhoorst 
and Gov. Van Twiller, nothing certainly, within the limits 
of a legitimate authority, was omitted, to secure to the Co- 
lony all its rights, and all its advantages. From this time 
forward, a systematic encroachment on the rights of the 



127 

Colony was made by the Company. The Company had 
never purchased, and did not own, a foot of land within 
the Colony. The soil on which Fort Orange stood was 
included in the purchase made by the Patroon. Yet not 
only was the Fort itself maintained, without necessity, 
if not against right, but a claim was set up to as 
much land around it as would be swept by the range of 
its guns. The Trading Factory of the Patroon had been 
reared, originally, on the very borders of the dry Moat 
which surrounded the Fortress, and near it the cottages 
of a village settlement had already begun to cluster. This 
was the village of Beverwyck — a neat and promising lit- 
tle Hamlet, the germinating principle of the future City 
of Albany — and forming beyond all question, a part of 
the Colony of Rensselaerwyck. It was the Patroon's 
village, planted on his own land, under his leave and au- 
spices, by his own colonists, brought into the country at 
his own cost. This was a case which had been prospec- 
tively provided for in the Charter from the Company, by 
expressly conceding to the Patroon the right to govern, 
by officers and magistrates of his own appointment, any 
town, or city, of which he should be the founder. But 
the Company early determined not to permit this Colony 
to become too prosperous, or the Patroons to acquire too 
much consideration and power. By claiming the territo- 
ry around the Fort within the sweep of their guns, they 
brought the entire village of Beverwyck within the grasp 
of their unwarrantable demands. They first insisted that 



128 

the Commander Van Slecktenhoorst should erect no more 
dwellings for his Colonists in that quarter. The worthy 
Commander protested, and went on as usual. Gov. 
Stuyvesant sent a military expedition — that is to say, an 
officer with a handful of soldiers and sailors, who took a 
fortnight's time for their campaign up the river, and en- 
tered the peaceful village of Beverwyck in warlike and 
hostile array. They even dared to enter the dwelling 
and castle of the Patroon, with arms in their hands. But 
great as was this outrage and violence offered to the dig- 
nity and rights of an independent Patroon, by an armed 
invasion of his territory and jurisdiction — so, at least, was 
it esteemed by Commander Van Slecktenhoorst, who as- 
saulted the proceeding with Proclamations and Protests 
in unsparing quantity — the expedition was a fruitless one, 
and Gov. Stuyvesant took nothing by his irregular motion. 
The act was even disavowed by the authorities in Hol- 
land; they affected utterly to disbelieve that the "hon- 
orable, valiant, wise and prudent Petrus Stuyvesandt" 
could ever have offered such an indignity to fhe honora- 
ble and valiant Van Rensselaer of Rensselaerwyck. In 
the mean time, the constructing of houses in the Hamlet 
proceeded, and the prudent Governor changed his mode 
of attack. He undertook to give to the inhabitants in the 
village permanent leases for the soil, and to absolve them 
from their oath of allegiance to the Patroon. He even 
appointed magistrates for Beverwyck, and caused Courts 
to be opened, and justice to be administered there, in the 



129 

name of the Provincial authorities! All this while the 
full-blooded Netherlander, Van Slecktenhoorst, was nei- 
ther dismayed nor idle. He went on with the construction 
of his houses in Beverwyck ; and he gave personal notice 
to the Company's officer at Fort Orange, who had been 
directed to put that Fortress in repair, that he must not 
touch a stone or a stick of timber for that use, within the 
Colony of Rensselaerwyck. This was awkward for Mr. 
Commissioner Van Brugge. He held back for instruc- 
tions, and, as necessity knows no law, he was ordered to 
take the materials for repairs wherever he could find 
them, on grounds uncultivated or unenclosed. We may 
suppose that, with the sturdy Commander of Rensselaer- 
wyck to deal with, he found the execution of his orders 
neither easy nor pleasant. For several years the contro- 
versy went on, and at last, the purposes of the Director 
General and the Company were only consummated by 
an act of treachery. Van Slecktenhoorst was arrested at 
Manhattan, thrown into the Keep of Fort Amsterdam, 
and detained a close prisoner until a new Director for his 
Master's Colony was appointed. He was then released, 
but only for the purpose of performing the ceremonial 
of installing his Successor in his place, which he affirmed 
could be lawfully done by no one but himself. 

With a Director more to the taste of the Governor and 
the Lords Directors of the Company at Amsterdam, the 
Colony was treated with more apparent respect, but in 
reality with no less injustice than before. Gov. Stuyve- 



130 

sant was formally instructed by them to take care that he 
gave no cause of offence to the inhabitants of the Colo- 
ny. They offered their congratulations on the peaceable 
state of affairs between them and the people of Fort 
Orange ; but they did not forget to inform the Governor, 
at the same time, how important it was, and how much 
it concerned both " equity and liberty," that the limits 
between Fort Orange and Rensselaerwyck should be de- 
finitively settled. Keeping this object steadily in view, 
the footing which the Company had obtained in Bever- 
wyck was carefully preserved, and their authority there 
gradually extended. Finally, the Governor ventured to 
mark out the boundaries of the possession claimed for 
the Company as the proprietors of Fort Orange. These 
boundaries modestly embraced a mile in extent on the 
River, taking in the entire village of Beverwyck, and 
forming that base line which was afterwards used in ihe 
original Charter of the city of Albany, and upon which a 
territory of sixteen square miles was carved out of the 
Manor of Rensselaerwyck for the uses of the city. It is 
worth while to add, in this connection, that it was not at 
last, deemed safe by the English Gov. Dongan, to issue his 
Patent for this territory to the city, until he had first ob- 
tained from the Patroon of that day a formal Release of 
the land to the King. That Release was executed two 
days before the Charter of the city was granted. 

I have dwelt on the affairs of this Colony during the 
rule of the Dutch Authorities in the Province of New 



131 

York, at such considerable length, though still with small 
justice to a subject of deep interest, that I must now hasten 
forward, in a very unsatisfactory manner, to the conclu- 
sion of the history on which I have entered. The Eng- 
lish Conquest of this Province took place in 1664. Jere- 
mias Van Rensselaer, the second son of the original Pro- 
prietor, was then in possession of the Colony of Rens- 
selaerwyck. He lost no time in applying to Gov. Nichols 
to be confirmed in his possession and rights. This was 
readily granted by the Governor, in accordance with the 
general stipulation he had given at the surrender ; to ope- 
rate, however, only to give Mr. Van Rensselaer time to 
obtain a regular Patent of Confirmation from the Duke 
of York, for whom the Conquest of the Province had 
been made ; and in the mean time, it was made his duty 
to see that his Colonists — heretofore his subjects — should 
become the proper subjects of King Charles II, by per- 
sonally swearing allegiance to him. In the confusion of 
the time, and it is probable also for a particular reason 
which will be referred to directly, no Patent for this Es- 
tate was given for several years. Meanwhile, the posses- 
sion and right were continued to Van Rensselaer, by the or- 
ders of successive Governors, and the warrants of the 
Duke. In this state of things, the Province again chang- 
ed masters. Nine years after the surrender, the Authority 
of the States General was again established over New 
Netherland — only, however, to be returned into the hands 
of the English the next year. But there was work for 



132 

Van Rensselaer to do in this brief period. He was call- 
ed before the Lords Commanders and the Honorable 
Tribune of War at Fort William Henry, to tender, for 
himself and his people, his oath of Allegiance to the new 
powers ; and he was then sent back to the government of 
his Colony, but with greatly restricted authority. The 
right of the inhabitants to a voice in the selection of their 
own magistrates, was distinctly recognized. They were 
to nominate twice the number required, and he was to 
appoint from their nominations. 

In 1674, the English rule over the Province was re- 
stored, and Jeremias Van Rensselaer died the same year. 
This event — the death of Jeremias, in possession of the 
Estate, with a claim of right more or less extensive — 
produced, it would seem, some embarrassment in regard 
to the succession ; and this was apparently increased by 
doubts about the true law of descent applicable to the 
case. Jeremias was a second son ; the eldest son of the 
original Proprietor was Johannes Baptista, and was un- 
doubtedly, according to one rule of the Feudal law — this 
being a feudal estate — sole heir to the Colony and title 
of his father. But Johannes, who was the person spoken 
of by the bold and faithful Van Slecktenhoorst as his 
Orphan Patroon, and who had been early in the Colony, 
had returned to Holland, while his younger brother, Jere- 
mias, had been placed in possession with all the powers 
of government and control, and, it is not improbable, with 
some equitable understanding between the brothers in 



133 

regard to the succession. At any rate, a claim was set 
up by the son of Jeremias, as his father had occupied 
with some claim of right, and died in possession. When, 
however, Johannes died he left an only son, who was, of 
course, by the rule of primogeniture, the sole heir to the in- 
heritance. But, then, there were other descendants of the 
same common ancestor, and they put in a claim — or one 
was preferred for them — on the ground of the civil law, 
which had been adopted by the Dutch, and which cast in- 
heritances, in equal portions, on all descendants, male and 
female, in the same degree of affinity to the ancestor. 
The civil law of the Dutch could not, however, 1 think, 
have been applicable to Estates, like the Colony of Rens- 
selaerwyck, held by a strictly feudal tenure, and where, 
according to the notion of the times, the personal dignity 
of the proprietor was to be cared for and preserved.* In 
this state of things, it was proposed, and an order to that 
effect was given to Gov. Andros, that a Charter should 



* The rule of succession, or inheritance, under the feudal law, was differ- 
ent in the different countries of Europe, and seems to have been modified at 
pleasure to suit the notions and the circumstances of the times in each. The 
Seigniories in Canada, under the French, were not subject to the law of pri- 
mogeniture ; nor, on the other hand, did they descend, like the peasants' 
lands, to the children in equal portions. The eldest son represented the 
father, and was to take such a share as might enable him to maintain his 
father's rank and station in life, while the younger children were not left 
without some legal provision. 

" View of Canada while subject to France."— MS. p. 21. 



134 

be issued which should, for the present, without deter- 
mining the rule of succession in the case, recognize the 
proprietorship of the right heirs of the first owner. I 
think it not uncharitable to say, from the circumstances, 
that the Duke of York was reluctant to acknowledge a 
proprietorship in any body, to so considerable a portion 
of that princely estate — the Province of New- York — 
to which he had just secured a title, and would have been 
glad if he could have found some plausible grounds, at 
least for cutting down this Dutch principality to some 
more moderate dimensions. 

It is supposed, not without good reason, that the grati- 
tude of Charles II, on the recollection of hospitalities 
and favors received at the hands of the representative 
head of this family,,when that accomplished but dissolute 
Monarch was an exiled and necessitous refugee in Hol- 
land, led him to interpose in behalf of the heirs of the old 
Director Van Rensselaer, by means of which that 
order was obtained from the King's Brother, the Duke of 
York, to which I have alluded.* As it was, however, no 
execution of this order took place until 1685, when Gov. 
Dongan caused a Charter to be issued for that purpose. 
This Charter was granted to two persons. One of these 



* There is now in possession of the Van Rensselaer family, at the Manor 
House, a snuff-box, with the Miniature of King Charles II upon it, which 
was presented by that Prince, to their Ancestor, on the occasion refer- 
ferred to. 



135 

was Kill! an Van Rensselaer, only son and heir of Johan- 
nes, and the other was Killian Van Rensselaer, the eldest 
son of Jeremias ; and the Charter was, in terms and ef- 
fect, a grant in trust for the right heirs of the Original 
Proprietor of the Colony. It embraced the ancient posses- 
sions of the Patroons, nearly entire, and defined their 
boundaries ; and it converted, in express terms, the old 
Dutch Colony, into an English Lordship, or Manor, with 
a broad tract, twenty-four English miles by forty-eight in 
extent — some comparatively small parcels of land ex- 
cepted — and with the noble Hudson pouring its flood of 
navigable waters from North to South, through the cen- 
tre of the territory. Two years after, one of the Kil- 
lians, the son of John Baptiste Van Rensselaer, died, and 
left no issue to succeed to his interest. The other Kil- 
lian, his cousin german, the son of Jeremias, became 
now the representative and sole heir, if the rule ot pri- 
mogeniture was to prevail, to the inheritance of his 
Grand-father, the first Proprietor of Rensselaerwyck. 
In 1704, by the order of Queen Anne, this rule was defi- 
nitively settled and adopted in the case, and Killian, the 
son of Jeremias, received a Charter, granting to him the 
Manor and Lordship of Rensselaerwyck, in absolute pro- 
priety. So far as appears, this was done with the ac- 
quiescence of all ; and whether all did acquiesce, or not, 
there can be no doubt it was done in strict accordance 
with legal right. The feudal law, however modified by 
the Dutch, would have cast the main part of the inherit- 



136 

ance, if not the whole, on the eldest son living, in the di> 
rect line of descent. But it was, after all, the English 
law of descents, and not the Dutch, which was applica- 
ble, and applied to the case. The English claimed — with 
how much truth and propriety it is useless now to en- 
quire, since the whole matter was in their own hands — 
that they held the Province of New York, not by right of 
Conquest, but by right of Discovery ; that the country 
was theirs all the while ; and that the Dutch, and all 
others, who had made settlements and acquired property 
in it, while the estates of owners for the time should not 
be disturbed or brought into question, must submit to the 
sway of the English law in the Province, from the mo- 
ment the English Authorities were in condition to enforce 
it.* I may here add, that from this first Lord of the 
Manor, throuj^h his second son — the eldest having died 
without issue — the late Stephen Van Rensselaer, was 
the third only, in the direct line of descent. The Manor 
had never been disposed of by will ; and it had 
never been subject to entail ; it took the course of the 
canons of descent established by the law of England, and 
came to the late Proprietor by right of primogeniture. 

* On this ground, therefore, the English rule of primogeniture was to 
prevail in regard to all inhabitants in the Province of New York ; whereas, 
if the right of England to the Province had been the right of Conquest only, 
the law of descent, with all other laws, as established among, and by, the 
the Dutch, would have prevailed, until altered and changed by the con- 
queror. 



137 

Between a Dutch feudal Colony, with its Patroon and 
Commanders, its forts and soldiers, its high and low ju- 
risdiction — and an English Manor, with its Lord and Stew- 
ards, its Courts-leet and Courts-baron, there was some 
resemblance, and some difference. There was a strong 
family likeness, with a marked diversity of features. They 
were both of feudal origin and character. They were 
both Estates of dignity and power. But a marked dis- 
tinction is found between them, when we come to look at 
the different estimate which was evidently put upon the 
people belonging to the Estate, in the two cases. We 
have seen already what was their condition in the Colo- 
ny — not one certainly of oppression, but not one of free- 
dom. They were regarded as men — witii rights and pri- 
vileges — but as men to be protected, and not men who 
could, or ought to have, much right or authority to pro- 
tect themselves. In the Manor — I speak now of the Manor 
of Rensselaerwyck, as created by express Charter — the 
case was somewhat changed. In the first place, it was 
only in the King's Courts that the tenants could be called 
to answer for high crimes, and there they must have a 
Jury of the vicinage to try them. Then, although for 
misdemeanors, minor offences and nuisances, they were 
liable to be prosecuted in the Lord's Courts, and also to 
be impleaded there by each other in their disputes about 
property, where the amounts involved were not large ; 
and although all controversies about the right to lands in 



138 

the Manor were to be determined, in the first instance, in 
the same Courts ; yet they were themselves — the tenants 
who were freeholders — the judges, and, in strictness, the 
sole judges, of these very Courts ; the Stewards were 
properly the Registers, and not the judges of these tri- 
bunals. And, finally, the consideration in which the peo- 
ple of the Manor were held, was manifested in the voice 
they had in legislation, through their right to elect, with 
the Lord of the Manor, a Deputy to represent them in 
the General Assembly. In all this, the condition of the 
tenantry was improved, and it was so in some other 
things. They had passed under a new Government — 
one which had impressed upon it some Saxon notions 
about liberty and human rights, and of which they were 
enjoying, in some degree, the benefit. 

Still, however, the authority and privileges of the Ma- 
norial Chief were not inconsiderable. The writs for 
the holding of the Baronial Courts were to be issued by 
him, and it was his right to preside in those Courts, in 
person, or by his deputed Steward. To him belonged all 
fines and amercements, imposed on oftenders within the 
Manor, whether by his own Courts, or by the Assizes, the 
Sessions of the Peace, or the Oyer and Terminer. To 
him appertained also, all waifs, estrays, wrecks, deodends, 
and the like, with the goods forfeited by felons within his 
Lordship. He had the important right of advowson — 
the sole right to name and present the ministers to all 



139 

churches, built, and endowed with glebe, on his demesnes ; 
and authority was given him to elect a Representative to 
the Legislative Assembly — uniting the freeholders and in- 
habitants with him in the election ; the benefit of course 
resulted almost always to himself. The choice was quite 
sure to fall on himself, or on his friend and nominee. 

On looking into the Records of our Colonial Legisla- 
ture, I find the fact of representation from the Manor — 
which was distinct in this respect from the City and 
County of Albany — just as I had expected. From the 
first Provincial Assembly held after the accession of 
William IIL in 1691, down to the last in 1775, when the 
Revolution broke out — a period of eighty-four years — the 
place of Representative from the Manor was always 
filled ; frequently by the Proprietor himself, and if not by 
him, by reason of his minority or other disability, then al- 
ways by some member, or some friend, of the family. 
The first Deputy from the Manor was Killian, the son of 
Jeremias Van Rensselaer ; after twelve years in the As- 
sembly, he was called to the Provincial Council. The 
last Deputy was Gen. Abraham Ten Broeck. He was 
the uncle of the late Patroon, by marriage, and his 
Guardian during his minority, and had the care of his 
Estate. He represented the Manor for fifteen years, and 
as long as there was a Colonial Legislature in which it 
could be represented. 

While, however, the Proprietor, or some family or 



140 

personal friend of his, uniformly secured the advantage — 
if advantage it was — of an election to the Assembly, it 
is only an act of justice to say, that the interests of the 
Tenants appear to have been, without exception, faith- 
fully represented — however it might be supposed that 
cases would arise, in which the interests of the Tenants 
and those of the Proprietor might not be identical. But 
this is not all, nor the highest praise due to the Represen- 
tatives of Rensselaerwyck. During almost the entire 
period of eighty-four years just referred to, the political 
condition of the Province was unquiet. The tendencies 
towards popular liberty were constantly manifesting them- 
selves, and bringing the Colonial Assemblies into sharp 
collision with the Royal Governors. The Governors, as 
a general thing, went for prerogative and power ; while 
the Assemblies had enough of the blood of the Saxons 
infused into them, to stand out for popular rights, and 
some of the guaranties of freedom. I do not think that 
the Dutch, though brought up in a different school, were, 
on the whole, a whit behind their fellows in acquiring 
those liberal lessons which were studied, recited and en- 
acted in these polilical Colleges. But how was it with 
those among the Hollanders, who had themselves, or 
whose ancestors had, but lately come into the country, 
expressly with a view to the founding and maintaining 
in it, in their own persons, and in their children, a high 
feudal aristocracy ; and whose pretensions, in this re- 



141 

gard, had been expressly recognized by the new Powers 
with only such modifications as resulted, when an Eng- 
lish Monarchy succeeded to the dominion of a Dutch Re- 
public? What was their course and conduct in the po- 
litical conflicts of the times ? Did they struggle to retain 
their hold on these personal advantages ? Did they seek, 
by a natural sympathy, to strengthen the arm of irrespon- 
sible power, and encourage the foot of tyranny to press 
more strongly on the neck of prostrate humanity, as 
symptoms of life, and the awakening consciousness of 
strength, began to exhibit themselves ? Quite the contra- 
ry, as the records of the period shew. When the As- 
sembly, at its Session in 1691, framed and published its 
Declaration of Rights — a remarkable act for the period, 
and the first example of the sort, I think, among the 
American Colonies — the Proprietor and Representative 
of Rensselaerwyck assisted in that bold and manly mea- 
sure. This was the very earliest occasion on which 
the political bias of his mind could have displayed itself. 

Ten years afterwards, I find this same individual a 

proud feudal dignitary of the land — putting his name, with 
only four others of the Assembly, to a paper, which insisted 
so strongly on the rights of the Assembly, in opposition 
to the encroachments of Authority, that that Body itself 
felt obliged, in order to charm down the angry elements 
that had been roused, to pronounce the instrument dis- 
loyal, and even to expel its author from the House. In 



142 

1747, the Royal Governor, Clinton, committed against 
the House a gross breach of privilege, and was about to 
follow an act of injustice with an act of tyranny, and 
dissolve the Assembly. But the Assembly did not choose 
to receive this last Message from his Excellency, till they 
had transacted a little business on their own account. 
They locked the doors of their Chamber, and laid the key 
on the table, and proceeded to charge and prime some 
strong Resolutions, to be let off with heavy denunciations 
ao-ainst the Governor, when the doors should be opened ; 
they made provision, at the same time, for a Manifesto, 
to be drawn up and fulminated, after the dispersion of the 
Members, and which is one of the most elaborate and 
remarkable papers of our ante-republican history.* In 
all this proceeding, the Representative of Rensselaer- 

■wyck a brother of the Proprietor — did not hesitate to 

take his part, on the side of right and liberty. I have al- 
ready stated, that Abraham Ten Broeck was the last Re- 
presentative of Rensselaerwyck in the Legislature of the 
Colony. He was the brother-in-law of the late Mr. Van 
Rensselaer's father— who died at the early age of twen- 
ty-seven — and, as I have stated, the uncle and Guardian 
of the son ; and he did not misrepresent either in acitng 



* This extraordinary Paper, making sixteen closely printed folio pages, in 
double columns, may be found in Lot's Journal of the Colonial Assembly of 
New York, vol. ii. p. 206. 



143 

the part of a good patriot. It is well known, that in the 
last brief Session of the Assembly, held early in 1775, a 
considerable part, sometimes a majority of the House, 
were found to shrink from any very bold and decided mea- 
sures. Several Resolutions were rejected, which it was 
feared might seem to commit the Assembly to the cause 
of the approaching Revolution. Gen. Ten Broeck had 
no fears, and voted on these occasions with the country 
and for the country. And, finally, when the Revolution 
came, he fearlessly plunged in, with others, to swim with 
and save his country, or to sink with her. He was a 
Member, and the President, of the Convention which 
formed the first Constitution of this State — that Conven- 
tion which sat, at various times, and in seven different 
places, as the exigencies of the war permitted or com- 
pelled, before the completion of its labors. 

With this brief relation, I conclude this slight sketch of 
the affairs of Rensselaerwyck. It is not a little grati- 
fying to find, that even here, where provision had been 
originally made, and which had been carefully continued 
and preserved, to plant a strong Baronial and Aristocrati- 
cal interest in the virgin soil of the New World, in imi- 
tation of the established institutions of Europe — to bear 
sway by combining to form a reigning oligarchy, or else 
to stand as supporters and buttresses around a superior 
regal power — even here, not only was nothing ever found 
on which the enemies of freedom could rely for support; 



144 

but, during, all the preparatory period, and when the occa- 
sion came at last to call out the brave and patriotic — those 
who would be free and make their country so — in de- 
fence of human rights and popular liberty, a spirit was 
manifested in full accordance with the popular movement 
and temper of the times. The Manor of Rensselaer- 
■wyck — with whatever influence belonged to it — by no 
means inconsiderable — was found invariably on the side 
of freedom and the people. 




MR. BARNARD'S DISCOURSE 



THB JLIFE JtJTJ^ SERJ^ICES 



STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER; 



AVITH AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



COLONY AND MANOR OF RE NS SEL AERWYCK. 






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